Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers has hit out at his misfiring strikers after the Reds were knocked out of the Europa League by Besiktas, according to report from the Express.

Rodgers was disappointed that the likes of Daniel Sturridge and Raheem Sterling were unable to take several opportunities during the game, which resulted in the Turkish club progressing via a penalty shoot-out.

Tolgay Arslan scored for his side in the 72nd minute to cancel out Liverpool’s 1-0 lead from the first leg, and it was Reds centre-back Dejan Lovren who missed the deciding penalty kick - the only effort off target of the 10 taken by both sides.

But Rodgers believes that if his side took their chances, then they would have netted the all-important away goal, making them favourites to progress to the next round:

“I’m disappointed, of course, to go out in the manner we did,” said Rodgers. “I thought we created opportunities in the first half to make it really difficult for them.

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“Over the course of the game, we defended very, very well and limited them to very few chances.

“We created chances in the first half. We were missing a lot of our creativity (with the absent players), but it’s no excuse.

“The one mistake we made we got punished for when we were too deep for the moment they scored. It was a tight game and we just didn’t manage to finish the opportunities that we had.

“I can only give credit to my players even though we went out on penalties.

“Good luck to Besiktas and their supporters. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been a good place for us this time in the Ataturk.”

Liverpool have less than 60 hours to prepare for their crunch Premier League fixture this weekend, in which the Merseyside club hosts champions Manchester City at Anfield on Sunday lunchtime.

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