Atletico Madrid star Koke has lauded his team-mates for giving everything they had to overcome Liverpool at Anfield on Wednesday night in the Champions League.
The Spanish giants scored three extra-time goals to dump Liverpool out of the Champions League on an aggregate scoreline of 4-2 in the last 16 of the competition.
Georginio Wijnaldum levelled the tie up before half time with header and Roberto Firmino seemed to have won the game in extra time when he scored the goal that edged Liverpool ahead in the tie.
But a brace from Marcos Llorente and another strike from Alvaro Morata meant that the defending European champions bowed out of the Champions League.
Atletico Madrid rode their luck in the game with goalkeeper Jan Oblak producing a virtuoso performance, but Koke insisted that the players absolutely gave their all to win the game.
He stressed that even when Liverpool edged ahead he always believed that Atletico Madrid were always a goal away from progressing.
Koke told Madrid-based daily Marca: “What a way to win and work.
“Even those who have not played gave their lives for the team and when you leave everything on the pitch, what happened today happens.
“We had lost the tie.
“But I tried to convey to people that with one goal we could qualify and we not only scored one, we scored three.”
Liverpool will now look to wrap up the league title in the next two games but are facing the real prospect of lifting the Premier League title in an empty stadium due to the Coronavirus outbreak.
