Defeat no disaster for Juanito

Early blunders
Two goals conceded inside the opening 15 minutes left Betis with a mountain to climb against the European champions at the Estadio Manuel Ruiz de Lopera. Although Arzu pulled a goal back early in the second half, Llorenc Serra Ferrer's men were unable to salvage a point from the Group G match. "In this competition experience is very important and we made the mistake of lacking a bit of concentration at the start of the game," Juanito told uefa.com.

Anderlecht ambitions
"The team who score first in the Champions League gain a big advantage and we have to learn this and do the same ourselves in the other matches," he added. "We lost a bit of composure early on but you learn from your mistakes and let's hope we can do the same to Liverpool at their place. We now have to try and get a win at [RSC] Anderlecht [on 28 September] which will give us a chance of finishing in the top two. There is still hope if we can win there and then try and get a point from Chelsea [FC] in one of the two games against them."

Not bettered
Prior to Tuesday's match, the Spanish international defender said Betis faced a three-way fight with Liverpool and Anderlecht for second place behind the team he considers the strongest in the section, Chelsea. And despite the disappointment of defeat, he stressed that this remains the case, arguing that the English side "were not superior" on the night.

Dominant side
"We've started off on the wrong footing but there are still five games to play and anything can happen," he said. "The positive side is that despite losing the first two goals we managed to create chances and we showed that they were not superior to us." The statistics certainly support Juanito's view as the Andalusians had twice as many shots as Liverpool - and seven on target to the visitors' four - as well as 60 per cent of the possession.

Good goalkeeping
However, Liverpool's know-how, their experience of winning matches at this level told, as Juanito admitted. "We lacked a bit of ruthlessness in front of goal," he said. "When [substitute] Dani came on, he injected a bit of life into the attack but when we did have chances, [Liverpool goalkeeper José Manuel] Reina did a good job."

'Bad start'
He concluded: "It was a great atmosphere and it was a shame we couldn't give the crowd something to celebrate against the European champions, but the bad start we made meant we were chasing the game for the remaining 75 minutes."