The visitors were provided with plenty of opportunities in the first half to get that crucial away goal and put the aggregate two up. Daniel Sturridge missed some glorious chances early on to get his side a victory in the second-tier European competition. A 73rd-minute goal from substitute Tolgay Arslan had given Besiktas victory on the night and levelled the aggregate score at 1-1.
Nothing could separate the two teams in the extra time and it all finally went to penalties. Liverpool, who were without 10 players for this game, and also had Daniel Sturridge and Mario Balotelli substituted, found themselves in a tricky position for the encounter. Rickie Lambert, Adam Lallana, Emre Can and Joe Allen all converted from the spot but the decisive penalty was missed by Dejan Lovren, who has already been under so much scrutiny since his move from Southampton.
Rodgers said, a Dejan was happy taking a penalty.
a All five penalty takers wanted to take one and were confident. The four before that all scored, and we had experience in a cup competition shoot-out earlier this season (against Middlesbrough).
a I was happy with the penalty takers.
a Dejan offered. We are disappointed for him as he played very well in the game. Somebody had to miss and it just happened to be him.a
The Northern Irishman also spoke about the players not taking chances in the first half where they had the opportunities.
a Ia m disappointed, of course, to go out in the manner we did,a said the Reds boss.
a I thought we created opportunities in the first half to make it really difficult for them. Up until they scored the goal we were quite comfortable in the game. Away from home the objective for us was to keep a clean sheet.
a We created chances in the first half. We were missing a lot of our creativity (with the absent players), but ita s no excuse. We had young players getting experience, we played with two strikers so it was an attacking line-up.
a Over the course of the game, we defended very, very well and limited them to very few chances. But the one mistake we made we got punished for when we were too deep for the moment they scored.a
The Liverpool boss did insist that he was proud of his team’s effort and the focus will now be on the FA Cup and the league, where a tough test against Manchester City awaits this Sunday.
a I am proud of the team,a he said. a Lots of young players got lots of experience in a fantastic atmosphere.
a Besiktas supporters were outstanding as were the Liverpool supporters to comes so far and give that support, we appreciated it. We are disappointed having put so much into the game.
a It was a good game. There wasna t a great deal in it and the pitch was very difficult for both teams.a
a Congratulations to Besiktas, for us we have to concentrate on our league campaign which is starting to go well for us,a he said.
a Our objective this season is to win a cup and ita s not going to be this competition, but we have an excellent opportunity in another competition.a