Jurgen Klopp toasted a famous Liverpool victory in the San Siro - and then warned they still face a “dangerous” second leg at Anfield.
Roberto Firmino and Mo Salah snatched late goals to secure a brilliant win which will make Liverpool red-hot favourites to reach the Champions League quarter finals.
But Klopp said: “It is still dangerous. It is only half-time. We don’t feel like we are halfway through. We will have to be ready for it. They are good. Really good.
“The 2-0 feels like a proper half-time. I don’t say: ‘job done, put your legs on the table.’ Why should I think different about it now?
“They are a very physical team. They played real smart balls, they have this deep last line and in the beginning we did very well. I was not surprised – they are good. We know that. We have to be ready for the second half.”
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Klopp was full of praise for his team’s defensive display as Virgil van Dijk was outstanding while half time substitute Firmino opened the scoring after a treble substitution also changed the momentum of the match.
Liverpool boss Klopp, who gave teenager Harvey Elliott his Champions League debut to make the 18-year-old the club’s youngest ever player in the competition, said: “We defended with passion, determination and it shows what this competition means to us.
“Harvey can play so much better he played in the spaces, these half spaces around the middle three. Naturally offensive minded. He did the job, he worked incredibly hard.
"When you are 18 and you play against one of the most experienced teams – and they are Italian! – then it is not easy but he did very well.”
Diogo Jota came off at half time with an ankle injury and Firmino seized his chance to again show his quality. “We had to change because Diogo but Bobby got the goal and made a big impact.”
Van Dijk added: “A good result to take back to Anfield. You try everything and they did very well defensively, but Bobby found the space and a great goal. It is a well-deserved win, very hard work.
"Everyone expects to be under pressure, it is the Champions League. The message before was you need to be ready to suffer and do the hard work. It is a very good performance, clean sheet and happy days."
On Liverpool's defensive performance, Klopp continued: "We defended really well, the way you have to defend – we like to win the ball early but if that is not possible.
"And against them it is really not possible because they make the pitch really big, the three centre-backs, they pass a lot of back passes to them and then from there they go diagonal to either [Denzel] Dumfries or [Ivan] Perisic.
That makes it really tricky, so you have to defend with passion; organisation helps as well with but with passion and I thought defensively it was a really strong performance.
"But it would be silly if we wouldn’t defend well because it means a lot to us this competition and these games, so we invested a lot and it’s good."
