Mohamed Salah’s early penalty gave the Reds a 1-0 win in Bergamo on Thursday night, but a 3-0 defeat in last week’s first leg at Anfield proved costly for Jürgen Klopp’s side, with the Serie A outfit holding firm to progress to the last four on aggregate.
Speaking to TNT Sports afterwards, Van Dijk reacted to the end of the team’s European campaign and admitted they left themselves too much to do.
“Firstly, credit to Atalanta,” said the captain. “The damage was done last week [when] we were very poor and they had the perfect game. They deserve to go through. We made it far too difficult for ourselves with the result last week.
“Today was a good game, great fight. Obviously we won but it doesn’t feel like it really. Obviously it’s an improvement, but the reality is that we are out and we have to quickly turn this around, recover and travel to London on Saturday.
“We need everyone for that last push, and that’s the feeling that I’m getting now.”
We are disappointed to go out of the competition, because it is something that we really wanted to win. But the damage was done last week and that’s something we have to be very disappointed in.”
Liverpool must now prepare themselves for a return to Premier League action, with a trip to Fulham on Sunday to come before visits to Everton and West Ham United next week.
Liverpool had hope of producing a comeback against Atalanta when Salah converted from the penalty spot after only seven minutes following a handball.
But despite dominating possession, the Reds were unable to add to their advantage and reduce the overall deficit thereafter.
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