Jurgen Klopp has admitted Liverpool by no means put in a masterclass against Rubin Kazan, but has stressed their 1-1 Europa League draw is not the end of the world either.
Rubin grabbed the lead 15 minutes into proceedings via Marko Devic, but Emre Can restored parity in the 37th minute, immediately after Rubin defender Oleg Kuzmin was sent off.
"It wasn't a masterclass but it's not the worst day in my life," Klopp said post-match.
"It wasn't a boring game. It was a very interesting game, a big challenge because of the quality of Rubin Kazan.
"Everybody could see they are not too bad – very experienced, very cool when they got the ball. They didn't have it too often but when they had the ball they were really good.
"They got the first goal and that's one of the biggest challenges in football. You are in a good moment, your direction is OK, you're in the game, your concentration is high and you're playing football and you have this. You need to restart in the game but we did it well and got our goal.
"Before that they got the red card. Sometimes it's a big advantage against 10; most of the time it's a really thankless job because now they stop playing football. Now they defend in a big, compact block."
Liverpool sit second in Group B following Thursday's results with three points from as many games.
‘Even though Kevin Keegan was my boyhood hero, we never really saw eye-to-eye. That was an underwhelming time for me – I felt on the outside’: Newcastle cult hero reveals disappointment over how things went under King Kev
Alexander Isak puts uncertainty over his Newcastle United future to bed amid fresh PSG and Arsenal links
