Inter won 1-0 in the second leg on Tuesday, becoming the first team to defeat Liverpool since the turn of the year, but Jurgen Klopp’s side advanced to the quarter-finals on aggregate after a lifeless 2-0 loss at the San Siro three weeks ago.
Despite two “outstanding performances,” Inzaghi and his Nerazzurri’s European dream came to an end at Anfield, and the Nerazzurri boss believes the damage was done even before their consolation triumph.
“We got to this level for the first time in 11 years and ended up playing the best side in Europe, and we were on same footing with them,” Inzaghi remarked after the game.
“We put up two fantastic performances, and we arguably performed even better in the San Siro than we did tonight.”
“We played an extremely tough, physical, technical team that can put you in all sorts of trouble and we did really well
“I’m more bitter about what happened in the San Siro rather than tonight. I regret that result.”
Inter, toothless in the first leg, looked to be in the ascendancy in round two after Lautaro Martinez’s rocket made it 2-1 on aggregate shortly after the hour mark.
But their hopes of reaching the last eight would be dealt a fatal blow in a matter of seconds as forward Alexis Sanchez received a second yellow card for a foul on Fabinho.
Manchester United’s former flop Sanchez received his first caution just before halftime for a rash challenge on Thiago Alcantara, despite the Nerazzurri’s displeasure with referee Antonio Mateu’s decision.
“Sometimes all it takes is a single episode to turn a game around,” Inzaghi said. “At San Siro, we played a fantastic game for 75 minutes before conceding a set-piece goal.
“They caused problems from set-pieces in the first half, but we began to gain the upper hand in the second half and scored a goal, but Sanchez was sent off.”
“I haven’t actually looked at it in depth, so it’s tough for me to comment.”
“We’re disappointed that a player was sent off just as we were gaining the upper hand in the game.”
Klopp, on the other hand, believes Liverpool deserved to advance, saying, “I’m incredibly glad we went through because when we initially saw the draw, we thought, ‘OK, that’s going to be a tough one.'”
“We should not have conceded the goal, even though the finish was brilliant; we could have done things better before that.”
“We deserved it throughout the two legs.” That’s all right. We had some issues in the game for several reasons, one of which was the opponent’s quality, a very talented football team.”
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