Brendan Rodgers defended his team selection after Liverpool’s 1-0 Champions League defeat against Real Madrid and insisted their hopes of progressing to the knockout phase are still “in our own hands”.
Rodgers left out Steven Gerrard, Raheem Sterling, Jordan Henderson, Philippe Coutinho and Glen Johnson at the Bernabeu and instead fielded an inexperienced side containing the likes of Lazar Markovic, Javier Manquillo, Fabio Borini and Emre Can.
A 27th-minute strike from Karim Benzema was enough to win the game for the hosts, but Liverpool, who face Chelsea in the Premier League on Saturday, fought valiantly and were never out of the contest.
“People obviously don’t know a lot of the players well,” Rodgers told Sky Sports afterwards. “There are a lot of new young players that were adapting into the team and the squad.
'Tough game'
“We knew we had a real tough game tonight, but I didn’t rest players for Saturday. I picked what I thought could maybe – on the back on Saturday’s game against Newcastle – get the result for us tonight, and I think the performance showed that.
“We showed great courage. The players that came into the team were excellent and we were unfortunate not to get a result against a team that is the leading team in the world at the moment.
“I had every confidence that the players we chose tonight would do well and I don’t think any other players I could have put in tonight could have put in the performance we put in.”
The result maintains Real’s 100 per cent record in this season’s Champions League but leaves Liverpool still third on three points, three points behind Basel, who moved on to six points by beating Ludogorets 4-0.
Crunch clashes
Liverpool travel to Ludogorets next on November 26 before hosting Basel on December 9, and need to win both games to progress past the group phase.
“There are so many positives from tonight,” Rodgers added. “Obviously we lost the game and we are disappointed with that. It will now go down to the two [remaining] games in the group – that’s what we anticipated and it’s still very much in our own hands.”
Rodgers’ immediate focus, however, is on Saturday’s lunchtime clash with Premier League leaders Chelsea at Anfield.
Rodgers said: “We will take the confidence from the performance level and hopefully we can now move into Saturday’s game with more confidence. We now have to go again and refocus. We will stay overnight here, prepare well, train here tomorrow and get ready for the game on Saturday.”
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