Jürgen Klopp has revealed that Liverpool midfielder Adam Lallana apologised to him for his horrendous miss after Sunday's draw away at Manchester City.

With the Reds 1-0 up after James Milner's superbly-taken penalty six minutes into the second-half, Lallana spurned an ideal opportunity to double Liverpool's advantage and put them in pole position to claim three points.

After Georginio Wijnaldum beat the offside trap to flick the ball over the back-line to Roberto Firmino, the Brazilian controlled and squared for Lallana - unmarked and just four yards out - but he failed to connect with the ball with the goal agape.

Sergio Agüero equalised for City on 71 minutes as the two teams eventually played out an enthralling draw at the Etihad Stadium despite both having an abundance of goalscoring chances to win.

Lallana apologised after the game, admits Jürgen Klopp

Klopp, speaking on Lallana's performance, hailed the midfielder as "one of the best - if not the best - player, technical-wise" that he has "ever worked with", adding: "If he couldn't [score] in this moment, I thought it was because he worked so hard before."

Attempting to explain how the England midfielder missed the chance, Klopp said: "The goalkeeper was quite impressive for City today and maybe he made a good movement or whatever, or he [Lallana] was surprised that we played football like this because we hadn't 20 times before that."

The German admitted that things like that "really can happen" as he revealed: "Immediately after the game, Adam said 'sorry' to me and I thought 'why?' - but now I know why he thought he had to say sorry. But he didn't have to, because his performance was outstanding again."

German has 'positive' assessment of Reds' performance

Asked whether he felt Liverpool could have won the game, Klopp declared that he felt better about the result some time after, admitting: "I thought the whole time that everybody around me was so excited, but not in the dressing room actually - they felt a little bit [disappointed] like I did. The wonderful piece of football we did that Adam couldn't finish, unfortunately, that's what brought this situation."

Yet he also acknowledged that Agüero "could have scored once or twice" and there were "a lot of penalty situations in the game" for both teams and said that while he could not change the result afterwards, he felt "there could have been a red card around Sadio [Mané]'s situation" when the winger "was away and then [Nicolás] Otamendi could catch him."

"But the summary of the game is positive," Klopp declared, calling his side's performance - and the result - "very good", stating that in a game against a good side the display "was intense" and Liverpool "defended well."

While the Reds boss acknowledged the "problems" they sometimes had, he hailed how his team "came back" and "took the game" when they were "the better side" before City "came back" themselves.

Klopp felt Liverpool "gave them the opportunity to score" but said that it isn't that he isn't satisfied with the result, but that he expects "things like this from us" and he "cannot run around after a draw against Man City" even though "of course it's a success."

He labelled it "good" and "positive" to get a point and perform as well as they did, touching upon how City showed "how strong they are and how good they are" and said it is "really difficult" to face Pep Guardiola's men.

Yet Klopp insisted Liverpool "did well" and called himself "proud" of the performance even though he said he has had "a few nicer moments" in his career, although he called this too "a good moment."

Klopp: Performance was a 'very important' reminder

"It's very important for us that we again gave this sign to all the people who are interested in us that we can really perform like this," Klopp said - with his side unbeaten against the Premier League's 'big six' teams this season, with five wins and five draws from 10 games.

He warned that it is "really not easy" and that if it were then "all the teams would do it", adding: "The lads did really well. I'm fine with this. Maybe I'm not right, but I thought we would have deserved to win a little bit more. But it's all okay, I have to accept different and I've had worse results in my life. Nobody has to worry about me."

The 49-year-old also commented on how he felt it was "really hard work" on the sidelines although it appeared a "nice game to watch", insisting that also on the pitch it was "outstanding hard work" and was "really hard work both teams" in the second-half when both began to tire.

Klopp said: "I don't know exactly when between, but 55-70 [minutes], we recovered with the ball, they recovered without the ball. I thought in these 10 minutes 'Come on, close the game!' and we had the chance, [but] Roberto Firmino [shot into] the side of the goal."

He also brought up Lallana's opportunity, looking at the positives of the situation as he said it was "really cool" that Liverpool could play "football like this" although his players had "a lot of kilometres" in their legs.

On another late chance, when Mané's chance on the counter-attack was firmly ended by a strong and well-timed John Stones tackle, Klopp said that "it was not a chance" but that if the Senegal international could "touch the ball once then he's away again."

Klopp admitted he "cannot forget" their missed chances, but then also mentioned some of City's missed chances, such as when Agüero fired "into the sky" from inside the "six-yard box" which he noted "happens not too often", adding: "It was good. More and more, I feel it. I needed a few minutes, that's all."