Jurgen Klopp was full of praise for his Liverpool side's "outstanding" second half performance in Barcelona, but was left ruing a host of missed chances and Lionel Messi's unstoppable free kick.
Klopp's surprise tactics of employing Gini Wijnaldum as a makeshift front-man looked to be paying off as, despite trailing to a Luis Suarez goal, Liverpool dominated the second half.
Overall, the Reds had more possession and more shots than Barca on their own patch, but a moment of good fortune followed by a moment of pure genius from Messi looks to have settled the tie in Barca's favour.
The Catalan giants are now odds-on favourites to win the Champions League, while Liverpool are 9-1 to produce an Anfield miracle and somehow qualify for the final from 3-0 down.
"What can I say? It was just a really, really good football game and probably one of the best away games in the Champions League we've played."
— beIN SPORTS (@beINSPORTS) May 1, 2019
Jurgen Klopp tells @beINSPORTS he's immensely proud of his Liverpool side despite their 3-0 defeat tonight.
#beINUCL #BARLIV pic.twitter.com/Ktpor652Vy
"Football is like this, it's about scoring goals and they scored three and we scored none," Klopp told BT Sport.
"I'm really happy with the performance, that's how it is, of course not too happy with the result but we have to take that, that's football. We have to accept that."
"How we created the moments is outstanding, how we caused them problems was outstanding. We controlled the game so well in the second half especially, we had the ball.
"The one time bad defending, being 1-0 down is already hard, but not a big problem usually and that's what we said at half-time.
6⃣0⃣0⃣ Barca goals ⚽️
— Sporting Life Football (@SportingLifeFC) May 1, 2019
6⃣8⃣3⃣ Games 🏟️
🎩🙌 Lionel Messi scores his 600th Barcelona goal with an absolute stunner...and he reaches this ridiculous milestone in 118 games fewer than Cristiano Ronaldo did! #GOAT #Messi #FCB pic.twitter.com/tXnM8wBca2
"Going out then and how we played it. I don't know if we can play it much better to be honest but then you have that one moment, the ball goes onto the crossbar and then it's a very easy goal.
"The other is a wonder-strike again. I think Ali (Alisson) was there and each other ball he would have saved but that ball was obviously unsavable.
"That's it, 3-0 down and now let's recover and go to Newcastle. Now the game is over and whatever I say will not change the result."
Follow Sporting Life on social media - find us on Facebook here or tweet @SportingLifeFC
Related football links
- Sporting Life's betting tips
- Inside the Premier League title race
- Golden Boot latest
- Play Super 6
- Latest football fixtures
- Football results
