Source: Liverpool_Echo
Liverpool FC 1, Fiorentina 2: Reds' last Champions League act is a sorry first
ANFIELD'S illustrious European history is littered with firsts and last night it witnessed another entry - such a shame it was the one that was wanted least of all.[LNB]Had the situation gone as Rafa Benitez and his players anticipated, Fiorentina's first visit to this fabled stadium could, in theory, have ranked alongside those spine-tingling occasions that were Olympiakos and Chelsea, Auxerre, St Etienne and Inter Milan.[LNB]It was, of course, supposed to be the evening when their Champions League hopes were salvaged with a high-energy, ultra-committed display that would have had supporters screaming themselves hoarse and shaking in giddy disbelief at the unfolding drama.[LNB]Instead, the 40,863 who braved the December cold watched the least significant game Liverpool have ever played on home soil in European combat, one were the goals scored and bookings accrued were of use only to statisticians.[LNB]Exits from this competition are not supposed to be so humdrum; the glitz and glamour associated with the Champions League demands drama, the kind that was apparent when Liverpool eventually fell last season in the quarter-finals at Stamford Bridge.[LNB]Frustratingly the tumble they have taken this time has been anything but heroic or dramatic and the funereal manner in which 'You'll Never Walk Alone' was sung by The Kop summed up Liverpool's efforts against La Viola, Lyon and Debrecen.[LNB]No wonder. Watching Fiorentina go through the motions here, barely causing a much-changed Liverpool any real concerns for most of an instantly forgettable encounter, merely hammered home the feeling that a golden opportunity has been squandered.[LNB]Nothing should ever be taken for granted in football but the stark truth is Liverpool should have progressed from Group E without turning a hair and that's why the shock that Europa League is on the agenda come the New Year has yet to subside.[LNB]A statement made with the aid of Red-tinted glasses, particularly given this latest result? No chance.[LNB]Look at things another way - do you envisage either Lyon or Fiorentina reaching the semi-finals, never mind actually getting to the Madrid final? Exactly.[LNB]Quite simply, Liverpool have only themselves to blame, the collapse in Matchday 3 against Lyon and that last-gasp leveller conceded in Stade Gerland are the incidents which Benitez and Company have been left to rue.[LNB]Defeat here, courtesy of second half goals from Martin Jorgensen and Alberto Gilardino, may have triggered more negative headlines and brought a six-game unbeaten run crashing to the ground, but it should never have happened.[LNB]Liverpool have played far worse in the past two months than they did against Fiorentina and the reason the Italians pilfered a last-gasp win was down to a wretched lack of concentration from a makeshift defence; predictably it proved oh so costly.
