Jurgen Klopp accepted that Atalanta deserved to progress to the semi-finals of the Europa League after Liverpool exited the competition with a 3-1 aggregate defeat in the last eight.

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.

On the game and Liverpool’s exit from the competition, Klopp said: “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.”