Mohamed Salah admitted Liverpool may have suffered from complacency.
At the same time, they moved into their fourth Champions League quarter-final in five years, despite an uncharacteristic 1-0 loss in Anfield against Inter Milan on Tuesday.
The Italian champions could not overcome the mountain they were forced to climb following their defeat in the opening leg 2-0 at home just three weeks ago, despite Lautaro’s spectacular strike in the top corner before the half-hour mark.
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Alexis Sanchez’s dismissal shortly following shattered any Inter momentum, and Liverpool easily held off with an extra player despite falling to only one loss in 44 games across all matches this season.
The Reds were winning 12 games to ensure their dreams of winning quadruple historic trophy awards.
After winning the League Cup last month, Jurgen Klopp’s side is in the final eight in both Champions League and FA Cup and are playing with a game in the bag to reduce Manchester City’s advantage to six points in the Premier League.
And Salah hopes that they will take lessons from their solitary night in front of the goal, in which they failed to score only the fourth time this season.
“We lost the game, and maybe that will give us a push,” said the Egyptian player, who struck two times on the goalpost in the 2nd period with a plethora of opportunities.
“Maybe in the back of our minds, we were overconfident. It’s a good game for us to learn from.”
Inter had to beg for mercy after the fact that they conceded the two goals late in Milan three weeks ago, after having enjoyed a more significant part of the match for the majority of the first half.
“We’ve got to this stage for the first time in 10 years. We played against the strongest team in Europe in this time & were their equals,” declared Inter manager Simone Inzaghi.
“Sometimes it just takes a single episode to change the course of a game.”
The Italian champions controlled the first half; however, Liverpool scored the most goals when Joel Matip crashed a header off the goalpost before; after a corner resulted, Virgil van Dijk’s goal-bound effort was missed by a deflector.
After a quiet initial 45 minutes, Liverpool was energized by Klopp after the break.
They should have scored within the first few minutes following the restart when Salah played a loose ball inside the box onto the post.
On the other hand, Martinez looked to have missed the opportunity to put Inter back into the game as he sent a shot off the outside of the field.
However, the Argentine was able to redeem himself dramatically when he launched an attempt to the top of the corner from outside the box at the 62nd minute.
Inter’s excitement lasted only one minute until they were reduced to 10 players because of Sanchez’s indiscreetness.
The Chilean was lucky to get away with only one yellow card after an unwise lunge on Thiago Alcantara shortly before half-time. He then foolishly jumped into Fabinho to pick up another yellow.
Salah struck again at the post 15 minutes after the time limit, and only a fantastic block by Arturo Vidal denied Luis Diaz in stoppage time. Liverpool was unable to gain a numerical advantage.
“I think over the two legs, it is wonderful they won one, we won one, and we are through,” Klopp added.
“We could have done better against an opponent who makes life uncomfortable.”
