Liverpool praise Ibe, Beşiktaş still hopeful

• Alberto Moreno relieved after late Mario Balotelli penalty seals 1-0 first-leg win for Liverpool
• Moreno praises Simon Mignolet and European debutant Jordon Ibe, also hailed by Martin Škrtel
• Ramon Motta convinced Beşiktaş can turn the last-32 tie after some "solid" defending
• The second leg is next Thursday in Turkey, with the last-16 draw the following day

Alberto Moreno, Liverpool defender
Beşiktaş are a strong team, they have players who can open you up and the truth is they made it hard for us. You can see from the fact it took us until the 85th minute with the penalty to get our noses in front. That said, we had plenty of chances and they had very few clear chances so I think it was deserved. But now we have to go over to Turkey and we'll see what happens.

They're defensively very hard to open up and score against and if they'd gone in front [when Demba Ba raced clear in the first half] it would have been very tough to get back, but that that is what [Mignolet] is for, to make that great save. He is a good goalkeeper and we were also fortunate that in that action at the end Ibe got us the penalty and we got the advantage. He [Ibe] is very fast, physically strong and he was one of the best players tonight and thanks to him we got the penalty and the victory.

Jordon Ibe (left) on the ball©Getty Images

Martin Škrtel, Liverpool defender
It was a good result. Jordon Ibe did really well – his first game against Everton was great and he has continued that performance, he played really well. We knew before the game they had a good team, they are leading the league in Turkey, so we knew it wouldn't be easy. The main thing was to get a result and we got it in the end. We didn't concede and now we will go over there [to Istanbul] with confidence.

Ramon Motta, Beşiktaş defender
We did everything the coach asked of us and he said that if we manage to play like that at home in front of our fans, we can get the victory. Now we have the return leg to look forward to. We knew Liverpool were favourites tonight as they were playing at home in front of their fans but we were solid defensively, we managed to keep them out until the 85th minute and that gives us confidence that we can do a good job next week.