Stephen Bradley insists Shamrock Rovers can still have a big say in Group F despite their chastening defeat in Gent.
But he told his players not to dwell on this 3-0 setback as they switch their attention to Sunday’s FAI Cup quarter-final clash away to Derry City.
In Belgium, the Hoops were 2-0 down inside 17 minutes and handed Gent the second goal when Daniel Cleary slipped carrying the ball in his own box.
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But Bradley shouldered the blame and said: "The difference in the game is when you give up chances to teams like that they usually take them at vital moments.
"The second goal is something that is on me. I ask the players to play that way in every game, so I take responsibility for that.
"Dan is one of the best passing centre halves we have, he is probably the best in the country at it. It is very, very rare that you see a mistake like that.
“Unfortunately he slipped and at this level you don't get away with that but, as I said, that is on me. I ask the players to play that way and be brave.
“We need to give him more options off the ball. We didn't. He slipped, and we got punished."
Djurgadens bagged an injury-time winner in Stockholm to sink Molde who Rovers face next in Norway in three weeks time.
Rovers are joint bottom of the group with Molde but Bradley said: "We are very much in the group.
“Look, we were never going to win every game in this group. We are going to win some, lose some, draw some, that was always going to be the way.
"We lost tonight, we will do it again, but we’ll understand what went wrong and what went right and we will be better for it moving forward.
"Parts of the performance were good, parts were not, and if you don't start well in these games you are going to get punished.
“You can't give teams like that a leg up in the first 10, 15 minutes. But this group has been brilliant the last three, four years putting games to bed very quickly.
“Win, lose or draw, it is not their job to dwell on results - they have a responsibility to review the game and move on for the next one. We will do that again."
Gent boss Hein Vanhaezebrouck was surprised to see his side ahead so early in the game but warned that playing Rovers in Tallaght will be different.
Vanhaezebrouck said: “It's not our habit to score so often, so easily. Normally we miss a lot of chances, today we scored very easily on the three, four, five occasions we had.
“Shamrock Rovers is a solid team. Maybe the only thing is that in the first half, they didn't hurt us too much.
“But I'm already aware of the fact that when we go over there, it will be a difficult game and Djurgardens won against Molde, who are a good team.
“We saw that Djurgardens could not win in Ireland so that shows the quality of Shamrock Rovers. I don't agree with the argument that they are not the best team.”
Vanhaezebrouck also praised the 1,000 travelling Rovers fans and said: "They stayed here yesterday in Gent, behaving fantastically well and creating no problems at all.
"I appreciate the way they have come to Belgium, it's an example for everyone and congratulations that they are here with 1,000 people.
"They must feel the crisis in Ireland less than in Belgium because we only got 6,000 of our own fans in the stadium, which is not a lot."
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