James Milner admits it was important for Liverpool to win and claim a clean sheet over Ajax in Amsterdam on Wednesday.

The Reds lost Virgil van Dijk to a serious knee injury after Saturday's draw with Everton, while fellow defender Joel Matip was also sidelined.

Fabinho had to fill in at centre-back for Liverpool, but they managed to grind a 1-0 victory in their opening Champions League fixture.

"It's always important to start well, it was a tough away game first up so that's a bonus and they're a good team. They were well organised, played good football and we've had an up and down week and so it was important to bounce back which we did and I expected nothing less from this group of players.

"Fabinho is a top player and top players can adapt and he did that. He's played there before and played very well. I thought it was a good team performance because it was tough out there, it was a physical battle under tricky conditions.

"We'll take anything in relation to a goal, we had enough chances, we were disappointed not to score more. We had a good number of counter attacks which we didn't finish off. It's a big clean sheet, with the changes we've made this week especially and they're a good team, so it was important to get the clean sheet and take the points."