Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has claimed that his side were “deserved winners” against Inter Milan in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie at San Siro on Wednesday night.
The Reds took control of the two-legged tie at the halfway stage courtesy of late goals from Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah, giving them a commanding lead to take back to Anfield on March 8.
Inter were on top for long spells in the match, hitting the crossbar and seeing a goal correctly disallowed for offside, yet they failed to muster a single shot on target throughout the 90 minutes.
By contrast, Liverpool scored with their only two shots on target and, while Klopp acknowledged that his side were not at their best, he believes that they were worthy of the win.
“[It was an] incredibly physical game and we had to find a way,” Klopp told BT Sport after the match.
“In a game like this you have to keep the ball longer and that didn’t happen often enough. But you cannot come here and hope you have a brilliant day and that is the only chance to get a result.
“We did not have a brilliant day but a good enough day to be a deserved winner because we scored two wonderful goals.
“After the game I couldn’t care less but in the game we didn’t finish situations often enough. Very often, their situations were offside. This really kills me. You can see it is offside but they let it run and then forget to raise the flag.”
Klopp also confirmed that Diogo Jota suffered an ankle injury during the match, forcing him to be taken off at half time.
