Liverpool suffered European heartache as they exited the UEFA Youth League on penalties on Tuesday afternoon. The young Reds recovered from 2-0 down away at VfB Stuttgart, but captain Amara Nallo missed the decisive spot-kick as they exited the competition at the round-of-32 stage.

Finishing 19th in the inaugural league phase, Liverpool Under-19s scraped through to the knockout stages and were drawn against the fifth-placed German outfit for their troubles.

Barry Lewtas included Trent Kone-Doherty and Rio Ngumoha in his starting XI, but his side endured a difficult start at the Gazi-Stadion auf der Waldau as they found themselves 2-0 down after just 19 minutes.

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Eliot Bujupi opened the scoring in the eighth minute as he broke the offside trap after running onto Benjamin Boakye’s through-ball before slotting past goalkeeper Kornel Misciur into the bottom corner.

Efe Korkut then pounced on a poor kick from Misciur to race into the box and double Stuttgart’s lead after 19 minutes.

Liverpool fought back and halved the deficit five minutes later through Kieran Morrison following good link-up play with Kone-Doherty.

The winger, who made his professional debut for the Reds in Sunday’s FA Cup defeat to Plymouth, carried the ball into the Stuttgart half before playing a smart one-two with Morrison. Sprinting clear of the defence into the box, he then cut the ball back as he gifted his team-mate a simple finish.

Kone-Doherty levelled the scores on the stroke of half-time with a stunning strike of his own. Receiving the ball from substitute Afolami Onanuga on the edge of the box. The 18-year-old looked up and hammered across goal into the bottom corner.

With the scores still level at 90 minutes, the tie went straight to penalties. Morrison and Michael Laffey scored their spot-kicks for the Reds before captain Nallo stepped up.

His tame effort was kept out by Stuttgart goalkeeper Florian Hellstern though, to hand the German outfit the advantage. Having been sent off away at PSV Eindhoven last month when making his Liverpool debut, the Reds Under-19s captain was ultimately left to suffer double European disappointment.

Substitute Keyrol Figueroa kept Liverpool in the shootout with an emphatic penalty of his own.

But with Miscuir unable to keep out any of the Stuttgart penalties, Boakeye then stepped up to win the tie and book his side’s place in the last 16 despite a heartened comeback from Liverpool in Germany.

Liverpool Under-19s team: Miscuir; Pinnington, Lucky, Nallo, Ewing; Davidson (Onanuga, 37), Laffey; Kone-Doherty (Esdaille, 90), Morrison, Ngumoha (Bradshaw, 75); Sonni-Lambie (Figueroa, 75).

Unused subs: Hall, Upton, Ahmed, Bernard.