Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp accepted their lack of goal threat failed to put enough pressure on Atalanta to help turn their Europa League quarter-final back in their favour.

Mohamed Salah‘s seventh-minute penalty had raised hopes of a Barcelona 2019-style comeback but the Egypt international missed a relatively straightforward lob to make it 2-0 towards the end of the first half and they faded badly after the break as they exited the competition 3-1 on aggregate.

That meant for only the third time in the 21st century, England have no teams in the semi-finals of the Champions League or Europa League/UEFA Cup.

“We didn’t lose the tie tonight, we lost it at home,” Klopp said after a 3-0 first-leg defeat proved decisive.

[embedded content]

“It’s very easy to congratulate Atalanta because they deserved to go through. When you win a tie against us 3-1 in especially this way you deserve it absolutely.

“But I loved our game, especially the start. I loved the commitment, desire and power we developed in this game but it was clear we had better score from time to time otherwise it could be tricky over 90 minutes.

“The second goal could have helped a little bit. We have to create a little bit more than we did in the first half as it’s clear you need a result to help destabilise the opponent.

“If you have a second goal it’s a tricky one as the next goal is extra time but we didn’t get to that point and we will never really know how that would have looked.

“Disappointed we didn’t go through but not frustrated or angry. If you don’t deserve it, it’s all good.”

Salah has looked well short of his clinical best since returning from almost two months out with a hamstring problem.

Even though he has scored six in 11 game since he came back two of those have been penalties and he is squandering more chances he would normally be expected to take.

“I’m not particularly concerned. That’s what strikers do. That’s how it it is. We have to go through it, he has to go through it,” added Klopp.

“He is one of most experienced players in the squad. That’s pretty much all.

“It’s not that Mo didn’t miss chances before in his life, that’s part of the game. The penalty was super convincing, a super penalty then the next chance that was unlucky, but it’s not the first time has has missed chances like that.

“I won’t make a big story of it. I’m not particularly concerned.”

Adblock test (Why?)

Jurgen Klopp and Virgil van Dijk have looked to quickly turn the focus after Liverpool’s exit from the Europa League, with the goal to “focus on the league.”

Over the last month, Liverpool have seen ambitious hopes of a quadruple collapse, knocked out of the FA Cup and now the Europa League.

Though the Carabao Cup is already in the bag, their chances of lifting the Premier League took a major hit at the weekend, too, as the Reds lost to Crystal Palace.

But after a 3-1 aggregate defeat to Atalanta – which came after a 1-0 win in Bergamo on Thursday night – the league is all Liverpool have left to play for.

No surprise, then, that Van Dijk asked supporters to help the players give their all in the final six games.

“We have to very quickly turn this around, recover, and travel to London on Saturday [to play Fulham on Sunday],” the captain told TNT Sports.

[embedded content]

“We need everyone for that last push as well, and that’s the feeling that I’m getting already now.”

Van Dijk clung to the positives – in that “obviously we won and we kept the clean sheet” – but accepted that exiting the Europa League left a “bad feeling.”

“What we have to do is get back up,” he continued.

The Dutchman added: “That’s the aim now. Obviously everyone feels disappointed, I feel disappointed, but we don’t have a lot of time to be disappointed.

“Hopefully our fans will be there again, I’ve got no doubt. We need them more than ever for the last six games of the season, where anything is still possible.”

Also speaking to TNT Sports, Klopp took a similar view to his centre-back, insisting that his side produced “the reaction we wanted to show” but they were left with a bitter taste.

“Atalanta deserves to go through, 100 percent, that’s fine,” the manager said.

“We can now focus on the league. That’s what we’ll do from exactly now on.”

Klopp continued: “Tonight we won the game, so back to winning ways, now we have two-and-a-half-ish days’ time to make sure we recover to go against Fulham, which will be a tricky one, a completely different game but tricky.

“We have to see who can go again. But this tonight was the reaction we had to show, and the boys showed [it]. I’m not surprised, they always do that.

[embedded content]

“Obviously a bit mixed emotions, I’m disappointed we are out, but I’m happy with big parts of the game. That’s it, pretty much.

“Let’s put a line under this competition. We would have wished, for our people, that we go to Dublin, but that now didn’t happen.

“Now we have one competition left and we throw everything have into that.”

Adblock test (Why?)