Heskey stays upbeat despite draw

Emile Heskey has warned his Liverpool team-mates that they face a tricky task to reach the second group phase of the Champions' League after their disappointing 1-1 Anfield draw with Basle, insisting: "There's no margin for error now."

There were plenty of errors on Wednesday against the Swiss champions as a mammoth 27 shots during a one-sided match culminated in just a solitary Milan Baros goal.

Julio Rossi levelled against the run of play and despite a string of chances – and 16 efforts on target – Liverpool could not claim their first win of the competition.

However the numbers are crunched – and that is what manager Gérard Houllier will be doing now – Liverpool must win at least two of their final four group matches to have any chance of progressing.

The England international Heskey said: "We have a hard job now and there's no margin for error now. We have to beat Spartak Moscow at Anfield next week. We're still confident because we know the football we are playing is very good."

He said of Wednesday's result: "It was a match we should have won and we are all extremely disappointed. I thought we played really well, especially in the first half, and should have killed the game off. When Milan scored I thought we would go on and win it quite comfortably so it was a real shock when they equalised. As time went by I did start thinking that maybe it was going to be one of those nights when we did everything but score another goal."

Houllier added: "How many points we need depends very much on the result next week between Valencia and Basle. We will see then what we need, three wins or less."

And of Wednesday's draw, he said: "Our strikers did okay, they created so many chances for themselves and the rest of the side. Michael Owen was a bit unlucky, he created lots of chances for himself and others.

"We deserved to win, we hit the woodwork three times and were denied a blatant penalty late on when Danny Murphy's free-kick was handled. I have told the players to keep their heads up and to keep going because they are doing fine."

Basle's manager Christian Gross predicted it could all go to the last group game, when the Swiss club host Liverpool on 12 November. "I do not believe we are favourites to go through," he said. "I believe Liverpool will win both their games against Moscow and then it could all be on their trip to Basle."