Source: Daily_Mail
Liverpool 1 Fiorentina 2: Rafa's running on empty after Gilardino's final insult
Rafa Benitez had demanded they go out with a bang at Anfield, yet Liverpool departed the Champions League in the manner that has characterised their season so far.[LNB]A couple of thousand short of capacity at the outset, Anfield was barely half-full by the time Alberto Gilardino stroked Fiorentina's winning goal into an empty net with virtually the last kick, vacant red seats all around telling their own tale of a campaign fast being emptied of all its promise and possibility.[LNB]The damage had already been done, of course, with dropped points in Florence and home and away against Lyon consigning Liverpool to the Europa League with a game to spare.[LNB] Italian job: Alberto Gilardino completes a stunning comeback for Firoentina with his late winner at Anfield[LNB]That hardly made a third defeat in the least distinguished ChampionsLeague campaign of recent memory any easier to take for Benitez and hisplayers as they attempted to absorb the most unwanted of statistics.[LNB]By bowing to a workmanlike but scarcely formidable Fiorentina, thisLiverpool team became the first ever to suffer back-to-back homedefeats in Europe's premier club competition.[LNB] Liverpool boss Benitez piles pressure on Aquilani to deliver on his first startLiverpool v Fiorentina: How the action unfolded at AnfieldLIVERPOOL FC
