ammonnews.net

Ammon News - Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp said he was “disappointed” to see his side knocked out of the Europa League quarterfinals against Atalanta on Thursday, but insisted talisman Mohamed Salah was not to blame.

Liverpool couldn’t overcome the 3-0 deficit from the first leg, winning 1-0 in Italy but losing 3-1 on aggregate.

Salah had converted a penalty in the seventh minute to give his side hope of an unlikely comeback, but the English Premier League side failed to make the most of its dominance in large portions of the game.

Salah himself missed a glorious chance to put his side 2-0 up in the first half, getting his lobbed finish all wrong after catching Atalanta goalkeeper Juan Musso off his line.

It’s the latest in a long run of missed chances, with the Egyptian failing to rediscover his clinical form after sustaining a muscle injury at the Africa Cup of Nations in January.

Had he scored it, which he probably should have, Liverpool would have piled pressure on Atalanta which was forced to defend resolutely for much of the first half.

“I am not particularly concerned,” Klopp told reporters when asked about Salah’s recent form.

“That’s what strikers do, that’s what happens to strikers, that’s how it is. We have to go through this, he has to go through that. He is one of the most experienced players we have in the squad. We will go through that but that’s pretty much all.

“It’s not that Mo [Salah] didn’t miss chances before in his life, that’s a part of the game. The penalty was super-convincing, a super penalty, then the next chance, that was obviously unlucky but it is not the first time he missed a chance like that.”

CNN