Liverpool deserve to be out – Gerrard

The former England skipper netted a late equaliser for the Reds but it wasn’t enough as they crashed out of the Champions League against Basel.

Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard says his side deserve to be out of the Champions League after they exited the tournament with a 1-1 draw against Basel in their final group fixture.

The draw left the Reds in third position in Group B with just five points as Real Madrid finished as group winners and Basel also qualifying in second place.

Gerrard equalised for Liverpool with a late free kick at Anfield, after the Reds had been reduced to 10 men following Lazar Markovic’s dismissal, but says his side can have no complaints about their fate.

“No [Liverpool don’t deserve to go through]. We haven’t gone out of the competition because of our performance tonight,” he told ITV Sport.

“We’ve gone out because away at Basel we weren’t good enough. In our last game we conceded a stupid goal towards injury-time. You always qualify over the six games and unfortunately we haven’t been good enough.

“We’ll have to see [if January buys can turn things around]. What’s crucial is getting our main striker back who is capable of getting us the goals to get us in the top four.

“We need to try and get Mario Balotelli back firing again as well. At the moment it’s a bit of a rollercoaster, it’s tough. This club always tries to strengthen, always tries to improve and we dust ourselves down and go again.”

The Reds’ task was made more difficult by Markovic’s sent off after the former Benfica winger aimed a swipe at Behrang Safari in the second half.

Replays suggested there was no contact between the two players, and though Gerrard’s admits he did not see the incident clearly, he believes the decision had a detrimental effect to his side.

“It [the red card] doesn’t help of course. We knew if we were still in the game with 20 minutes to go if we could get that goal it would’ve been hell for Basel.

By: Gill Clark

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ABOUT: Nana Kwesi Coomson

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An Entrepreneur, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Communications Executive and Philanthropist. Editor-in-Chief of www.233times.com. A Senior Journalist with Ghanaian Chronicle Newspaper. An alumnus of Adisadel College where he read General Arts. His first degree is in Bachelor of Arts - Political Science (major) and History (minor) from the University of Ghana. He holds MSc in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Energy with Public Relations (PR) from the Robert Gordon University in the United Kingdom. He is a 2018 Mandela Washington Fellow who studied at Clark Atlanta University in USA on the Business and Entrepreneurship track.

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