Inter Milan coach Simon Inzaghi was left to lament his team’s home failings after they gave Liverpool an almighty Champions League scare.
The Italian champions won 1-0 at Anfield in their round of 16 second leg on Tuesday but were beaten 2-1 on aggregate.
Inter were on top when Lautaro Martinez scored on 62 minutes only for Alexis Sanchez to be dismissed a minute later for a second bookable offence.
And Inzaghi admits his team were ultimately undone by their poor finish to the first leg when they conceded twice late on.
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“We have got to this stage for the first time in 11 years and ended up perhaps playing the strongest team in Europe and we were their equals,” he said.
“We put in two tremendous performances, and in the San Siro we probably played even better than this evening.
“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.”
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Inter players and the bench were furious when Sanchez was shown a second yellow for a foul on Fabinho, having been booked in first-half injury time for a poor challenge on Thiago Alcantara.
And Inzaghi added: “Sometimes it needs just a single episode to change the course of a game.
“We played a great a game for 75 minutes at San Siro then conceded from a set-piece. In the first half from set-pieces they created issues, and in the second half we began to get the upper hand and scored a goal and unfortunately Sanchez got sent off.
“I haven’t really looked at it in any great detail so it’s difficult to comment on it
“We feel upset about the fact we had a player sent off just when we were getting the upper hand in the game.”