Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson admitted his side
now face a testing trip to Turkey next week after a gaining a
slender advantage over Trabzonspor on Thursday
night.
Ryan Babel scored the only goal as the Reds beat the Turkish Cup
winners 1-0 in the first leg of their Europa League play-off at
Anfield.
Victory would have been much more comfortable had Joe Cole
converted a second-half penalty and debutant Christian Poulsen not
had a goal disallowed.
"I think with our second-half performance we can probably count
ourselves unlucky," said Hodgson, who made seven changes and gave
captain Steven Gerrard a night off.
"We probably did deserve the extra goal which would have made
the trip to Turkey more comfortable. Now it won't be comfortable at
all.
"If you miss a penalty you can't blame anybody but yourselves
but I thought we were unlucky with the disallowed goal.
"Overall I am very pleased with the result and performance,
especially second half, but whether it will be good enough to take
to Trabzonspor, only time will tell."
Cole's miss continued a miserable week for the former Chelsea
midfielder, who was sent off against Arsenal on Sunday and found
guilty of speeding on Wednesday.
He now begins a three-match domestic suspension starting with
Monday's Barclays Premier League trip to Manchester City.
Cole was quick to shoulder the blame after missing the
penalty.
Asked when he last took a penalty, Cole told ITV1: "When I was
about 13, and I scored that one.
"It was a bad penalty (tonight). It was pre-determined that I'd
take it but you can't dwell on those things.
"It was a bad penalty but we won 1-0 so we'll take the positives
from that."
On his new playmaking role for Liverpool, Cole said: "It's nice.
I'm finding my feet in there.
"It's my job to do that, to make goals, and it was nice to do
that for Ryan tonight. He's a terrific player. I'm enjoying my time
here, I've had a decent start."
