ROY HODGSON admits Liverpool are in for an uncomfortable evening in Turkey next week after wasting the chance to take a significant step towards the Europa League group stages.

A goal on the stroke of half-time by Ryan Babel earned the Anfield outfit a slender 1-0 home victory over Trabzonspor in the first leg of their qualifying play-off.

But Liverpool should have won by an even greater margin with Joe Cole guilty of missing a penalty shortly after the interval.

Hodgson revealed the decision had been made before the game to give Cole spot-kick responsibilities despite the player later admitting he had never previously taken a penalty in his professional career.

And the Liverpool manager accepts his team have only themselves to blame for the tricky test that now awaits in next Thursday’s second leg.

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

“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.

“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.”