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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Sport
Tom Blow

Jurgen Klopp forced to give Liverpool dressing room a reality check after Inter Milan loss

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp had to remind his players they were through to the quarter-finals of the Champions League after their defeat to Inter Milan on Tuesday.

The Reds suffered a 1-0 loss at Anfield after Lautaro Martinez's superb strike but still progressed in Europe thanks their 2-0 win at the San Siro last month.

Liverpool players were dejected after the defeat, yet Klopp was delighted to reach the next round and keep his team's dream of an unprecedented quadruple alive.

The Merseyside favourites, who won the EFL Cup last month, remain in the hunt for the Premier League title and have reached the quarter-finals of the FA Cup.

"The boys in the dressing room, they were not happy," revealed Klopp. "I had to remind them, 'By the way, we are through.' So we did that and I'm really pleased."

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Jurgen Klopp was relieved Liverpool manager to get over the line on Tuesday evening (Mario Hommes/DeFodi)

Klopp admitted he was worried about Inter's quality ahead of the tie. The Italian champions are currently second in Serie A, two points behind AC Milan with a game in hand.

"The danger everyone knows about - 2-0 is the lead turned over the most in the history of football," erroneously claimed the Liverpool manager at a press conference on Monday afternoon.

Klopp went on to say: "If you are at half-time and two up and you think you are already through, then you are already on the wrong path.

"The result was a lot better than I expected, really tough tie and difficult game to play... they are a really good team, they don't come here as tourists.

"They want to attack the game. Let's see what we can get from it."

Added Klopp on Tuesday evening: "The art of football is to lose the right games. I still hate it, but if there was any game we could have afforded to lose it was this one because the main target of this competition is to get through.

"It's not that I am over the moon - I'm really happy we went through, because when we saw the draw it was, 'OK, that's a tough one.'

"But we went through over two legs and I think we deserved it.

"It's a big if but if we had used our chances from set-pieces and other situations - it was a bit slapstick how we missed the chances - in the end we could still have won the game.

"But the only thing I'm interested in is that it is fair we are through."

Liverpool and Bayern Munich are the first two teams through to the quarter-finals, as the German champions hammered Red Bull Salzburg 7-1 on Tuesday evening.

Manchester City already have one foot in the next round after beating Sporting Lisbon 5-0 in the first leg, while Chelsea and Manchester United also have a chance of progressing.

The other remaining teams in the Champions League are Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Ajax, Benfica, Juventus, Villarreal and Lille.

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