"Firstly credit to Atalanta," Virgil van Dijk told TNT Sports after Liverpool's 1-0 win over Atalanta in the second leg of the Europa League quarter-final.
"Last week we were very poor and they had a good game. They deserved to go through because we made it far too difficult for ourselves.
"Tonight was a good game and we showed great fight. It was an improvement but the reality is we are out and we have to very quickly recover and travel to London on Saturday.
"We tried and we had opportunities. At times we wanted it too quickly as everyone was keen to get the second and third. But overall it isn’t enough.
"We are disappointed to be out of the competition as we really wanted to win it."
Despite beating Atalanta in Italy, Liverpool are out of the Europa League after losing the first leg at Anfield 3-0.
The Reds were never really close to overturning the deficit, especially in the second half when they only had two shots on target.
