Liverpool deserve more from players, says Mascherano

• Midfielder says Reds have only themselves to blame
• Team motivated for top-four finish and Europa League victory

Javier Mascherano has claimed Liverpool's players will not be demoralised by demotion to the second tier of European football but must take responsibility for the club's damaging early exit from the Champions League. With qualification for next season's competition essential for Rafael Benítez, the Argentina captain has called on Liverpool to turn the misery of Budapest into a sustained assault on a top-four finish and victory in the Europa League.

The impact of Champions League elimination on a squad accustomed to preparing for finals, semi-finals and quarter-finals under Benítez was the one assurance Christian Purslow could not provide in Hungary. Liverpool's managing director moved swiftly and smartly to soften Liverpool's fall in terms of providing guarantees over the manager's immediate future and the financial implications for a club heavily reliant on its income from European club football's premier tournament. Players' attitudes following their failure to reach the knockout stage for the first time under the Spaniard, however, are more ambiguous.

"It's a strange feeling for everyone at the club. We are all so very disappointed," said Mascherano. "The Champions League is a special competition for us but it's gone and we must keep going. Now we are in another competition and we will do all we can to win it. There will be no problem with motivation. The motivation is simply to play for Liverpool. We are representing a top side and we all want to do well for Liverpool. We need to show that we are good players. It's got nothing to do with motivation, every year we do our best to qualify for the Champions League."

• Kevin McCarra's report: Debrecen 0-1 Liverpool
• Richard Williams: A disaster for a club built on success
• Andy Hunter: Liverpool plugged defensive holes
• Sean Ingle's minute-by-minute report
• David Conn: They may regret this for years to come

The Liverpool midfielder echoed Benítez's assessment that, despite a campaign littered with injuries and distraction, the team had only themselves to blame for finishing third in Group E following two late goals against Lyon and a dreadful display at Fiorentina. He added: "We are out in the group stage but that can happen. Liverpool deserve more from us and that is why we will do our best to win the Europa League."

With his team currently 13 points adrift of the leaders Chelsea in the Premier League, and under severe pressure from Tottenham Hotspur, Aston Villa and Manchester City in pursuit of Champions League qualification, Benítez cannot afford despondency to linger among his squad. Liverpool went 10 league games without a win after they last exited the Champions League group stage, at Basle in 2002, and with a Merseyside derby to come at Goodison Park on Sunday, Mascherano believes a pivotal game awaits at Everton.

"We know that in the league we have got to start winning again because we are not in the top four," said the Argentinian, who impressed in the ultimately inconsequential defeat of Debrecen at Puskas Ferenc Stadion.

"That is strange for everyone at the club and all the supporters. In the last four years, we have always been in the top four, sometimes fighting for the title but always fighting to get into the Champions League. We need to start winning games and we know that we have got a very important game against Everton. We need to win it. We beat Debrecen to get a bit of confidence and now we have to take that forward."

Uefa names five clubs suspected in match-fixing inquiry

• Clubs are alleged to have fixed seven qualifying round games
• Three referees are also under investigation by Uefa

Uefa has named five clubs in Albania, Latvia, Slovenia and Hungary as being suspected in European football's biggest match-fixing investigation.

KF Tirana, FC Dinaburg, KS Vllaznia, NK IB Ljubljana and Honved are alleged to have fixed seven qualifying round games in the Champions League and Europa League between 16 July and 6 August.

Uefa said three referees were possibly involved, as well as one official connected to the governing body. They were not identified by name. Uefa has opened its own investigation into the seven games and the referees.

Officials from the governing body met with national association leaders from Austria, Belgium, Bosnia, Croatia, Germany, Hungary, Slovenia, Switzerland and Turkey.

I'd sign Wigan's 'dodgy' players again, says Bruce

• Bruce laughs off claim that Wigan's 9-1 defeat was his fault
• Dave Whelan had blamed former manager's transfer moves

The Sunderland manager Steve Bruce has laughed off Dave Whelan's suggestion that Wigan's 9-1 thumping at Tottenham was his fault. The Wigan chairman jumped to the defence of the current manager Roberto Martínez in the wake of the club's humiliation at White Hart Lane, claiming the Spaniard had inherited "a few dodgy signings" after he replaced Bruce at the club.

However, Bruce told the Sunderland Echo: "I saw the quotes from Dave Whelan and I know that he was in Barbados at the time, so maybe he'd had one or two glasses of white wine when he made the remarks. I could respond but I'm not going to because I don't want it to blow up into something it doesn't have to be.

"I had a great relationship with the Wigan chairman and the one thing he was good at was always trying to protect the manager whenever possible, so I haven't taken offence at what was said. I think he was just trying to take the heat off his manager and I can understand that.

"I was trying to think of the couple of dodgy signings he was on about and I can only think of Hugo Rodallega and Charles N'Zogbia, who were signed at the back end of my time there, and if Wigan want to offload those two then we will be happy to take them.

"I'm not going to get embroiled in that sort of stuff, but he knows the decent job I did for him."

Interview with Gina Bianchini from Ning