We showed how much we wanted to be here

Inter Milan coach Simone Inzaghi said that result was too harsh on his team after Liverpool progressed to the Champions League last eight as they held off Serie A club with a 2-1 victory on aggregate on Tuesday.

Lautaro Martinez's stunning strike briefly gave Inter hope of a famous comeback, but after Alexis Sanchez was sent off Liverpool sealed their passage to the last eight.

"We turned in a top performance at a very difficult ground against a fantastic team," explained Simone Inzaghi after the game. "The players did extremely well. There's a feeling of disappointment linked to the first leg because the result was harsh on us."

"Liverpool seemed to be taken aback by our opening goal, but the sending-off of Alexis Sanchez had an impact on the final half an hour of the match. The team stayed in the game, held our shape well, and dug in where necessary, which was only really from set pieces. We head back to Milan with an impressive win, but it's unfortunately useless in terms of our aim to get through," the coach added.

The onus was firmly on Inter after their 2-0 defeat in the first leg and, just for a moment midway through the second half, a famous Anfield comeback of another hue looked on the cards. Lautaro Martinez's stunning strike halved the deficit for the ascendant visitors.

Hope did not spring eternal, though. It barely lasted a minute. A second yellow card for Alexis Sanchez left Inter down to ten, an uphill task became a mountainous one. Jurgen Klopp brought on his wise old heads in midfield and Liverpool played the game out with a degree of comfort.

"These matches can allow us to take steps forward and make us stronger. After not getting through the group stage in 11 years, the draw handed us Liverpool, but we showed how much we wanted to be here and we went toe to toe with them," Inzaghi said.