Rodgers was criticised for not taking big-name stars like Steven Gerrard and Luis Suarez to Russia but he believed the side he put out - which comprised nine Englishmen with an average age of less than 24 - did enough.
Europe has always been a Liverpool priority - throughout the history of the European competitions - and some Scousers struggle to come to terms with the manager's priorities.
A 1-0 defeat to Anzhi Makhachkala in Moscow, the Reds' second in Group A, saw them slip from top spot in the table.
Young Boys, whom they beat 5-3 in Switzerland, visit Anfield in a fortnight but even a win may still not guarantee progress if the other result goes against them before the final trip to face Udinese next month.
Brendan Rodgers: "It's a very tight group.
"It was always going to go down to the last game. The next one is now a big game for us now against Young Boys.
"We just move on to the next game in the group and that is one we have to focus on because we have to win.
"I thought they did really well and we just got punished for a mistake. That led to us losing the game.
"I don't think it was anything to do with Suarez, Gerrard, Joe Allen, Martin Skrtel or Daniel Agger not being here.
"Tactically our concentration was very good. We controlled the game for 44 minutes and 50 seconds of the first half.
"We made a bad mistake and got punished and that is the levels."
Anzhi Makhachkala 1 Liverpool 0
Club Brugge 2 Newcastle 2
Tottenham 3 Maribor 1
Udinese 2 Young Boys 3
Academica 2 Atletico Madrid 0
Viktoria Plzen 4 Hapoel Tel Aviv 0
Fenerbahce 2 AEL 0
Marseille 2 Borussia Monchengladbach 2
Bordeaux 1 Maritimo 0
Copenhagen 0 Stuttgart 2
Molde 1 Steaua Bucuresti 2
AIK 1 PSV Eindhoven 0
Napoli 4 Dnipro 2
Basel 1 Videoton 0
Sporting Lisbon 1 Genk 1
FC Neftchi 0 Rubin Kazan 1
Partizan 1 Inter Milan 3
Athletic Bilbao 2 Lyon 3
Hapoel Kiryat 1 Sparta Prague 1
Lazio 3 Panathinaikos 0
Bayer Leverkusen 3 Rapid Vienna 0
Metalist Kharkiv 3 Rosenborg 1
Twente 0 Levante 0
Hannover 3 Helsingborgs 2