ReactionJürgen Klopp press conference: The manager on Liverpool's Europa League exit to Atalanta

The Reds won Thursday night’s second leg at Stadio di Bergamo 1-0 thanks to an early penalty from Mohamed Salah, but they were unable to overturn the three-goal lead Gian Piero Gasperini’s side held from last week’s first match at Anfield.

Read our round-up from Klopp’s post-match press conference below.

On the game and Liverpool’s exit from the competition...

I loved the way we started the game. We didn’t lose the tie tonight, we lost it at home. That is why we have to – and it’s very easy to – congratulate Atalanta because they deserved to go through. When you win a tie against us 3-1, especially in this way, you deserve to go through, absolutely. But I loved our game anyway, especially the start. I loved the commitment and the desire, the power we developed in this game, but it was clear we better score from time to time to interrupt these kind of things otherwise it could be tricky to keep that over 90 minutes. How it always is, a second goal would have helped a little bit, it would have been a decisive thing because you saw Atalanta started very strong, confident, but with the few situations we had I think we gave them some concerns. They realised then as well it would not be easy and that’s the game we gave them, so I am really fine with that.

Disappointed that we did not go through but not frustrated or angry or something like that. Now we can focus on the league and that’s what we will do. We have a few days to recover, we will do that, and then will travel the day after tomorrow to London and will play Fulham, which will be tricky but we will give our absolute all. That’s our competition now. I saw a good reaction from my side, we had not a great week last week obviously. This, if we want, was the start for the rest of the season with a good result and a good performance and that’s how we see it.

On the difference between the first- and second-half performances...

Look, the biggest problem for us in the second half was that we couldn’t keep that tempo. For us, you saw tonight in Trent Alexander-Arnold which player we didn’t have for a while now. As long as he was fresh, together with Macca [Alexis Mac Allister] he set the tempo, the rhythm, the direction of the game. Obviously he was a bit running a bit out of gas. Macca had to go through this game, which is crazy and the way he did it was absolutely insane, but that was the difference. We can do that usually [keep the tempo] but tonight it was not that easy. If we could have kept a higher rhythm a bit longer, I think whatever Atalanta changed in the second half was not [the reason]. In the first half they pressed really high, what they did in the end again, in the middle of the game maybe not that much so that’s how it is, but that was not the difference.

I think tonight when we were really in the game we were difficult to play and in other moments we were easier to defend. We didn’t have enough chances for this. We have to create a little bit more than we did in the first half already because it is always clear you need the results to help to destabilise the opponent a little bit – if you have a second goal, then it is a tricky one and each ball and the next goal is extra-time, but we didn’t get to that point so we will never really know how that would have looked. But again, how I said, Atalanta deserve to go through and I am fine with that. I don’t want to go through if you don’t deserve it so it’s all good.

On whether he is ‘concerned’ by Salah’s form…

I am not particularly concerned. That’s what strikers do, that’s what happens to strikers, that’s how it is. We have to go through this, he has to go through that. He is one of the most experienced players we have in the squad. We will go through that but that’s pretty much all. It’s not that Mo didn’t miss chances before in his life, that’s a part of the game. The penalty was super-convincing, a super penalty, then the next chance, that was obviously unlucky but it is not the first time he missed a chance like that. I will not make a big story of it, what you make of it I obviously have no influence on obviously, but no, I am not particularly concerned.