Steven Gerrard admits Liverpool didn’t deserve Champions League progress

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Steven Gerrard: Liverpool didn’t deserve Champions League progress…

Steven Gerrard has admitted that Liverpool didn’t deserve Champions League progress, following Tuesday night’s draw with Basel, which saw the Reds eliminated from the competition.

Reports in the Daily Mirror explain that the Anfield skipper gave his side a lifeline late on with a sublime free kick, but the Swiss side held firm to send their opponents crashing out.

A visibly deflated Gerrard gave an honest appraisal of his team’s performance: “I still knew after I scored that it was going to be difficult with 10 men and running out of time, but it gave us some hope and, as the manager said, the first half was not good enough and we had to go down fighting.

“I have not seen the sending off, but I have heard it was harsh. It made it harder because we could have made it hell for Basel in the final stages with 11 men.

“I don’t think we deserved better. We have not gone out because of this performance, we weren’t good enough away to Basel and we let in a silly goal away to Ludogorets. You qualify over six games and we have not been good enough.

“We need to get our main striker Daniel Sturridge back and get some more goals in the side. We need to get Mario Balotelli back and firing. That is not to take away anything from the lads who have played tonight and have slogged their guts out.

“Rickie Lambert has ran himself into the ground tonight, but it has just been a game too far tonight and that has been because of a lack of numbers.”

Liverpool won just one of their six Champions League group stage matches, and they will now enter the Europa League, after finishing third behind Real Madrid and Basel.

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