Jürgen Klopp's verdict on Sevilla draw

The Reds dominated large parts of the game at Anfield, with goals from Roberto Firmino - who then struck the post with a penalty shortly before half-time - and Mohamed Salah putting them ahead at the break following Wissam Ben Yedder's early opener.

Joaquin Correa's 72nd-minute leveller snatched a share of the spoils for Sevilla, though, leaving Klopp to reflect on an opportunity missed by Liverpool to get their Group E campaign up and running with a win.

Read on for a transcript from the manager's post-match press conference...

On whether he feels frustrated to have been held to a draw…

That’s how it is - it’s a results game, they scored twice, we scored twice, so then it’s a draw. Frustrated? I’m not sure about this word but I’m not happy of course about this, but I am happy about a big part of the game. We tried to ignore the result of last weekend, but as we all know, we are human beings and that takes away confidence, and I saw we were really spot on from the first second, we played a good game. 

A lot of times when two good sides play each other then it’s kind of boring [but] I think this game today was the opposite. The main reason for this was the desire, the greed and the passion of my team, and all respect for Sevilla because they never gave up. They were lucky with the penalty for sure, maybe a second penalty [was] possible, [but] we had more chances and that’s important that we have chances, that we create. 

Even against a defensively really well organised side, we created a lot of chances - we didn’t use them, that’s the truth, but in football it’s really important you keep on going. There is a lot from this game on which we can build and that’s what we will try, of course.

Watch: The 2-2 Champions League draw in 90 seconds

On whether finishing is becoming a problem for his side…

If we shoot that often and don’t score then probably it is a problem, but I don’t think it will be like this. In a game like this, usually you score more often than we did tonight, so nobody should rely on this that we try that often and don’t score. The most important thing in football is creating chances and we did that in different situations. I know a lot of people will say it was counter-attack and yes, a few chances we had were after counter-attacks. Could we have scored? Yes, but we didn’t. We know we have to improve on this, but it’s not an illness that you can change it. We will work on this like we work on other parts of our game, for sure.

On whether intensity levels of the Reds' performance dipped in the second half…

It’s an intense time for us. We have a lot of games and we had a bad game a few days ago. It was not actually the plan that we say we do not this or that anymore [in the second half], but it’s kind of normal that you do things like this. It was very intense from our side what we did in the first half, and it’s normal you have this little break. As long as nothing happens in the game you can use this time still to control the game, then you score in other moments. For sure, that’s another thing where we can improve, 100 per cent, but it’s more likely you will see two halves like the second half than you see two halves like the first half because that was absolutely exceptional, but we are able to do this much longer than we did tonight.

Until they scored the second goal we controlled the game, so that’s also mature and something really important, especially with a few more games in the next few weeks. A few players could not keep the level from the first half, so I don’t think it was not a physical thing, it was kind of concentration. We are still in a process and we have to learn this. That’s my job, I see it and then I have to take the information and work with the information. It’s one of the parts we will talk about.

On whether he needed to lift his team after the game...

I have not a lot of time after the game. You [have] me pretty early after the game, I have a lot of interviews to give. It's not a time to lift them up, or whatever. [The feeling is] disappointment, it’s frustration, it’s completely normal but that’s fair. We are responsible for the very, very, very good parts in the game and we are also responsible for the not so good parts. That means you have to take it and have to use it. That means you have to feel disappointed after games like this; it's not that I come in and say, 'Come on, don't worry, what a really good game whatever they said outside!' That’s not how it works, you need to learn sometimes, you need the right emotion after you tried a lot.

I'm not sure we tried everything, but we tried a lot and didn’t get all the three points in this specific case. We don't have time to be disappointed or frustrated for long but, one night, it’s no problem. Tomorrow, we start preparing for Burnley on the basis of the game today, that's how it is. Like I said, [we did] a lot of good things and a few not so good things. If we win tonight 4-0, which probably would have been possible, everybody thinks we are flying and that's the perfect reaction to the last game and now we're the big favourite for the group. But it always will be hard work in the Champions League and tonight we were ready for this hard work but we didn’t get the full package, that’s how it is. Now we have to work with this basis, and that's absolutely possible.

On the home fans' warm reception for Philippe Coutinho, who came off the bench late on...

Phil trained in the last few days really, really well but tonight a few situations were not too lucky and he was without rhythm. But it helped him he could play tonight and it helped us in the long term, for sure, so all OK. 

On the causes of Sevilla's goals...

The first goal starts in a situation in the midfield when we can shoot the ball easily away. Emre is a little bit late in the situation, that's the first moment I realise something will happen. Until then, it was a nothing situation. That’s a press ball, in the half-space on the left-hand side, and in the end, I think it was through the legs of Dejan, I don't know exactly how it was. That's not, in the end, perfectly defended but I have to see it again. It's, of course, concentration, it's nothing else in this situation. We started the game how I thought we could - kind of dominant, played football, kind of good moments and that was pretty much their first offensive situation and then they scored. That’s a mixture of being a little bit unlucky and being through the wind - how we say in Germany.

But then you got it and then you have to react, and we reacted. We kept on playing football and that’s very, very important. I know here, you're always looking for this thing, so the defence was always something we were talking about - [we] didn’t sign this or that and all that stuff. But, if these problems would have been sorted with one player, you could imagine we would put all our money in and say, 'Come on, let's do this'. It's not about this, it's kind of this being dominant and losing a little bit the grip on the game. That's all space for improvement for all of us. We need to learn to be dominant and not to give easy goals away and the first one was, for sure, not necessary and too easy. The second, I have absolutely no clue how they came through that, to be honest, I have to see that again. It's not a general defending problem but we have to improve, 100 per cent.