Boss Roy Hodgson has admitted his Liverpool side now face a tough task of qualifying for the Europa League after they could only manage a 1-0 first-leg win in their play-off over Trabzonspor on Thursday night.

The Reds made hard work of seeing off their dogged opponents at Anfield and only have Ryan Babel’s goal on the stroke of half-time to show for their efforts, with a tricky trip to Turkey to come next week.

Hodgson’s side should have added to their lead in the second half but Joe Cole missed a penalty and plenty of chances went begging, with Lucas, Fernando Torres and debutant Christian Poulsen all guilty of wasting good opportunities.

Afterwards Hodgson, who rested regulars Steven Gerrard, Dirk Kuyt and Glen Johnson in the game, admitted he was disappointed Liverpool could only secure a one-goal lead to take into the second leg and was particularly frustrated at the missed spot-kick.

“I think we probably deserved to win by more but we must blame ourselves,” he said.

“We missed a penalty and if you miss penalties then you can’t blame anyone but yourself.

“We discussed penalties before the game and who would take them, and we’d decided on Joe.”

Hodgson was hoping for at least a second goal to give the Reds a decent cushion but it failed to materialise and now he is well aware they will be tested in Turkey as they aim to book their place in the group stage of the Europa League.

“With the second-half performance we did deserve the second goal that would have made the trip to Turkey much more comfortable.

“Now it won’t be comfortable at all,” he added.

Next up for Liverpool is a Premier League trip to fellow top-four hopefuls Manchester City on Monday night (City 13/10, Liverpool 19/10 to win)

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