Jurgen Klopp turns focus to Premier League after Liverpool's Europa League exit - ‘We throw everything we have’
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Published 18/04/2024 at 23:01 GMT
Jurgen Klopp was magnanimous in defeat as he took charge of what turned out to be his final European match as Liverpool manager, with The Reds beaten 3-1 on aggregate in the UEFA Europa League quarter-finals by Atalanta. Mohamed Salah's early penalty sparked hopes of another memorable comeback on the continent for the Merseysiders, but it was the Serie A side who progressed to the last four.
BERGAMO, ITALY - APRIL 18: Jurgen Klopp, head coach of Liverpool Fc gestures during the UEFA Europa League 2023/24 Quarter-Final second leg match between Atalanta and Liverpool FC at Stadio Atleti Azzurri d'Italia on April 18, 2024 in Bergamo, Italy. (Pho
Image credit: Getty Images
Jurgen Klopp was keen to shift focus back to the Premier League after their UEFA Europa League quarter-final exit to Atalanta on Thursday.
Mohamed Salah’s penalty gave The Reds a 1-0 second-leg win which was not enough to overturn last week’s 3-0 first-leg defeat at Anfield.
With the prospect of a record-equalling 20th league title still on the line, Klopp was keen to take the positives from a much-improved display against the Italians heading into Sunday’s match away at Fulham.
“We won the game and that's the reaction we wanted to show,” he told TNT Sports. “We knew that it would be difficult; Atalanta deserved to go through and that's fine and we can now focus on the league. That's exactly what we'll do from now.
“There are mixed emotions; disappointed that we're out, but I’m happy with big parts of the game. Let's put a line under this competition, we would've wished to go to Dublin. That didn't happen, and now we have one competition left and we throw everything we have into that.”
Klopp reflected in more detail on Thursday’s match and could not fault his players’ desire to try and turn the tie around.
“The two results show we didn't lose it tonight; we lost it at home,” he explained.
“It was clear that we gave ourselves a massive hurdle. But I liked the game a lot for a long time; the commitment, the power and the desire that the boys showed was incredible.
“If Trent [Alexander-Arnold] was a bit fitter, he could go a bit longer. How he started the game was absolutely insane; they had no clue how to defend that, but he was running out of gas slightly and we missed that. The longer the game went on, we went very offensive, but then lost that structure they changed defensively and pressed us high; we couldn't create chances properly.
“We won a game, we are back to winning ways now and we have two-and-a-half-ish days’ time to make sure we recover for the game against Fulham, which will be a tricky one.
“We have to see who can go again.”
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