Brendan Rodgers reflects on Lovren penalty miss [divider]

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers admitted that Dejan Lovren was keen to take a penalty ahead of the shoot out in the Europa League Round of 32 clash.

Lovren ended up blazing his penalty shot over the bar to give Beşiktaş a 5-4 win on the night.

“[Dejan] was happy [to take a penalty],” Rodgers told the official Liverpool website.

“All the five penalty takers who opted to and wanted to take a penalty were all confident.

“You saw the four before Dejan were very good penalty takers, who have had experience already in the cup competition this year.

“We were happy with the penalty takers and Dejan was confident. We’re obviously disappointed for him, because I felt in the game he played very well.”

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The Reds four other penalty takers all converted at the Atatürk Olympic stadium.

Beşiktaş did not miss a single penalty against the Reds. Demba Ba, Veli Kavlak, Atiba Hutchinson, Gökhan Töre and Tolgay Arslan all scored from the spot kick.

Liverpool did start the game with Mario Balotelli, arguably the best penalty taker in world football but he was replaced before the penalty shoot out.

Beşiktaş defeated Liverpool on home turf for the second time in a row following the win.

The Black Eagles will have to wait until March for the Last 16 of the competition when they will face Club Brugge of Belgium.