Stevie: We gave it everything

Steven Gerrard today reflected on Liverpool's Europa League semi-final defeat by Atletico Madrid and admitted a failure to score the decisive goal in the first leg ultimately proved to be their downfall.

The Reds skipper felt the players gave everything they possibly could on the night after a grueling 120 minutes at Anfield and claimed defeat was tough to take.

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"I am very tired and so are the rest of the boys because we put a lot of effort into the game but unfortunately we came up a bit short in the end," Gerrard told Liverpoolfc.tv.

"I am sure the majority of the supporters know we all gave everything we have got. When I was at the training ground this morning lads were getting treatment, they had bruises all over them and they are tired.

"We gave every inch of blood and sweat on the pitch but unfortunately it just wasn't enough.

"I know we won the game on the night but unfortunately we lost on the away goals rule. I am very frustrated and disappointed, but looking at both games overall I think us not getting the away goal in Madrid ultimately was the key to us not reaching the final.

"I think we did enough at Anfield on the night. You can only ask to win the game and we did that. I thought we did it quite comfortably to be honest but unfortunately in Europe it's about two legs and away goals do play a big part.

"We just never had enough quality in the final third of the field in Madrid to get that important away goal.

"We are disappointed because we went out of the Champions League, FA Cup and Carling Cup too early and we felt the Europa League was very important because we wanted to win a trophy for the supporters."

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