Jurgen Klopp says he wasn't surprised that Liverpool faced "difficulties" against a strong Inter Milan side as they scraped into the last eight of the Champions League.
The Reds made full use of their 2-0 advantage from the San Siro first leg as they lost 1-0 on the night at Anfield, with a fine goal from Inter forward Lautaro Martinez not able to overturn the Reds' aggregate lead.
Liverpool hit the woodwork three times on the night with Joel Matip heading against the crossbar and Mo Salah hitting both posts, while Luis Diaz also missed a golden chance late on.
But Klopp was just happy his side went through.
"The difficulties we had were pretty close to what I expected. Inter are a really, really good side, set up for these kind of games," Klopp told BT Sport.
"Without playing brilliantly we had clear-cut chances. Over the two legs it's completely fine that they won one and we went through. We could've done better against an opponent that makes life uncomfortable.
"It was a really interesting game. In the end we lost the game which obviously is not cool, we didn't come here to lose a home game.
"The opponent caused us problems but if we had used our chances we win this game. We lost a lot of simple balls, which can happen and when the ball was in the air it was like slapstick with the wind.
"The counter-press was not really there. We were around challenges but not in challenges and we didn't get the momentum, that's what we were lacking."
Goalscorer Martinez was left frustrated by the red card picked up by his teammate Alexis Sanchez, who earned his second booking for a lunge on Fabinho just seconds after Inter's goal.
“We did what we wanted to, we showed character, the desire to go through and when we took the lead in a difficult arena with so much enthusiasm, it’s a pity to then go down to 10 men, because these are the things that can make the difference,” he told Sky Sport Italia.
“We have to turn the page straight away and try to look forward. We are out of the Champions League, we have the Coppa Italia, we have Serie A and must try to do our best, learn from these mistakes and try to keep improving.”
Speaking at his post match press conference, Inter boss Simone Inzaghi said: “I’m more bitter about the outcome in the San Siro than what happened tonight.
"We played against perhaps the strongest team in Europe at this time and we were their equals. We paid a high price for the red card."
