Lallana: We'll battle on in the competition

Brendan Rodgers' charges battled hard against the La Liga pacesetters; however, they were powerless to prevent Karim Benzema, who struck twice in the last meeting between the teams at Anfield, from netting the only goal of the game.

The Frenchman was in typically ruthless fettle as he latched onto a pin-point pass from Marcelo, who was a constant menace down the left flank, and fired the ball into the roof of Simon Mignolet's net in the 27th minute.

Lallana and co came out stronger after the interval, pressing Madrid back and controlling a larger share of the possession than before, but ultimately they were unable to salvage a point against Carlo Ancelotti's side.

Real secured qualification from Group B with the slender 1-0 win - and Lallana believes Liverpool can follow them into the knockout stage by taking maximum points in their remaining two games against Ludogorets Razgrad and FC Basel.

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"We said at half-time that we were still in the game as long as it was 1-0," Lallana told ITV from the tunnel after the final whistle. "We had a couple of half chances and we were always in it to the last minute.

"We knew it was going to be a difficult place to come, but we showed that we've got fight and we're still in the competition. We know we've got to win our last two games. It's going to be tough but we're confident that we're capable of achieving that.

"We've got a tough game away at Ludogorets and then we play Basel at Anfield. They're two big games, but they are games that you want to be involved in as a footballer."

Rodgers opted to make seven alterations to the side that slipped to a sobering 1-0 defeat against Newcastle United at St James' Park in the Barclays Premier League on Saturday.

Lallana insists he was not surprised by the manager's decision to implement such wholesale changes - and the 26-year-old believes the players who were handed their opportunity at the Bernabeu turned in a display worthy of Rodgers' trust.

"We've got a big squad and we've got lots of games," said the England international. "The manager has utilised his squad.

"I think we [the players] were out there to prove a point and prove that we wanted to stay in the team for the weekend. We've got another big game against Chelsea on Saturday.

"But the main thing was the result [against Real] and we're disappointed, even though we're coming to the holders of the competition, to go away with nothing.

"The manager has brought a lot of players in and he's confident that they are good enough to perform at the level of the competition that we're in.

"We know we've been struggling with performances lately. But we've got characters in the squad and we know we've just got to dig in. We'll be doing that again on Saturday."