Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp says defeat to Inter Milan was the right game to lose.
Liverpool reached the Champions League quarterfinals 2-1 on aggregate after last night's 1-0 defeat at Anfield.
Klopp said, "Pete Krawietz always says the art of football is to lose the right games. I still hate it but if there was any kind of game we could have afforded to lose, it was tonight because the main target obviously of this competition is to get through. But it's not that I'm here like over the moon. I'm really happy that we went through because obviously when we saw the draw in the first place it was like, 'OK, that's a tough one.' So we went through and I think over the two legs we deserved it. That's fine.
"That we had some problems in the game tonight was [for] different reasons, one is the quality of the opponent – they are a really good football team. And their set-up – we know that in the league a little bit from Leeds under Bielsa – just with much more quality and that makes it really tricky to play against them. But we still had our chances and didn't score.
"When I think about the game, I didn't like our counter-press, I don't think we won any kind of ball back in the first 20 minutes. You have to be kind of expansive when you open up, when you are in possession, but when you lose the ball – and we lost the ball obviously in strange moments – then you have to chase the situation. And that was not exactly how I wanted it.
"But in the end, we have to respect the quality of the opponent. We do that. How I said, it's a big if – we didn't score – but if we would have used our chances from set-pieces, from other situations, it was then a bit slapstick how we missed the chances in the end, we still could have won the game. That's the only thing I'm interested in, that it's fair that we are through, against a really strong opponent. Now let's carry on."
On Alexis Sanchez's dismissal, Klopp also said: "I don't understand why we have to discuss that. If you played football, if you can win the ball only, if you bring yourself in a position that you endanger the opponent then you don't win the ball. That's it. If Fab goes in with the same intention, with a long leg, then both players get injured. Fab is there because he judged the ball that if he is not flying in, then I will get it.
"But because Sanchez is flying in and yeah, he touched the ball – that's possible – but in the end he cannot stop and hit Fab in a really bad way, to be honest. I think he was quite lucky that he didn't get a different colour [card] in the first half for a foul on Thiago, leg that high against the knee, similar situation. Passion is good, absolutely good, but if it leads to these kind of things it just doesn't help."
