• Champions League

Rodgers: Liverpool have no excuses

Brendan Rodgers has no excuses for Liverpool as they exited the Champions League and accepted they did not deserve to go through to the knockout stages.

Liverpool only won one of their six games in Europe's premier club competition and drop into the Europa League after a 1-1 draw with Basel, who progressed at their expense.

And manager Rodgers conceded that Liverpool's performance level over the six games has been unsatisfactory after they recorded their sole win against Ludogorets and took just five points.

Gerrard hits out at Liverpool failings

Steven Gerrard's free-kick was not enough to take Liverpool through © Getty Images

• Steven Gerrard says Liverpool were "not good enough" to qualify for the Champions League knockout stage and that the club is lacking firepower.
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"We can't have any excuses about not qualifying," Rodgers told his post-match press conference. "We had enough games. The big game was away in Basel where we were disappointing.

"If you deserve to go through, you go through. For us it is simple - we haven't been good enough over the course of the competition to go through. We have to take it on the chin."

Rodgers accepted he and his players will come under scrutiny after they underachieved on the European stage.

"When you don't qualify everyone gets looked upon," he added. "Across the board we have been looked at and analysed, whether it is Premier League, whether it is Champions League.

"For us the solution is simple: we have to be better in our performance level. That is everyone. That is the manager and the players.

"We are bitterly disappointed but now we have to carry on fighting for the rest of the season and make it a success. By then everyone will sit back and look and where it's at."

Basel led through Fabian Frei and Liverpool, who needed a victory to secure second place in the group, equalised through Steven Gerrard's late free kick.

By that point they had been reduced to 10 men when substitute Lazar Markovic was dismissed for swinging an arm at Behrang Safari.

Rodgers accused the Basel defender of play acting, calling on UEFA to investigate and criticising Dutch referee Bjorn Kuipers.

He said: "I thought it was an awful decision. I thought the referee was poor tonight. His fingernail barely touches the nose of the defender and the defender is the guy who should be looked at for his reaction.

"The referee has seen the lad lying on the floor holding his face, but I don't know if he has seen the actual incident."

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