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Brendan Rodgers revealed that a half-time chat with Mario Balotelli helped yield the Italian’s first goal for the Reds in last night’s Champions League opener.

The Italian struck in the 82nd minute from the edge of the six yard box – and the Liverpool manager said afterwards that he asked Balotelli to spend more time in the Ludogorets penalty area.

“He’s used to scoring. He’s already mentioned that he’s gone two games and hasn’t scored,” said Rodgers.

“He needs to be in the box more – because of his link up play he drops in and I said to him at half-time, make sure when the ball is in wide areas – penalty spot in, rather than penalty spot out. He finds himself coming back outside the box for the cutback a lot of the time.

“But he’s six feet three and great in the air and I think when the cross comes in he showed great physical strength, touch and then the finish was a brilliant finish.

“It was wonderful technique with the outside of the foot and I think it will give him a whole load of confidence.

“On top of that I thought he worked very hard tonight.

“He was pressing but he’s adapting and still trying to get fit.

“But he showed his quality tonight to get us that goal.”

Rodgers was thrilled by the sense of occasion around Liverpool’s first match in the Champions League for five years.

“It certainly cranks itself up in terms of the noise level,” he said. “I’m happy for the supporters. They’re back in the competition they’re so synonymous with.

“It’s a wonderful occasion at this level of football and it’s great to be back in it.

“We will have to play differently in the Champions League from the Premier League, there’s no question of that.

“This is a tournament where mistakes get punished. We made a mistake and they equalised.

“The home games are very important for us. We still have to play with that intensity, that tempo, and the team combined with the crowd can be a real force here.”

Rodgers added: “The competition is about winning and winning games.

“Sometimes you’ll play well and not get a result but for us it was very important to be back in the competition.

Watch: LFC mosaic before kick off at Anfield

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“It was always going to be a tricky tie for us against the champions of their country and there aren’t too many bad teams in this competition.

“Technically they were very good and we had to show patience – we changed the shape of the team from a 4-3-3 to a diamond to try and work some more space in the area and Mario gets a great goal.

“I’m disappointed with the equaliser, but in the first six months we’d probably have drawn that game, and maybe even lost it.

“But I think what we showed the resilience and the character which is in this group, roared on by the supporters who were great for us.

“The young kid up in the box pushing hard to get something from the game gets his reward and gets the penalty.

“It was a brilliant victory for us in terms of the points.”

*Analysis:what we learned on dramatic Champions League night