Liverpool discover place among European elite no longer guaranteed
Wednesday November 25 2009
If there was any doubt in Liverpool's collective consciousness as to what removal from the Champions League limelight into the shadows of its little sister signified, Debrecen, their hosts for a game, by turns meaningful and meaningless, were only too willing to remind them, players and fans alike.
As Rafael Benitez's players were put through their paces under the watchful eye of Sammy Lee, the Spaniard's trusted assistant, and their support slowly packed out their two heavily-policed pens, images flashed up on the big screen in the corner of the Ferenc Puskas Stadium. Cristiano Ronaldo, AC Milan, Camp Nou and the rest.
The strobe and the spotlight. There is only one place to be this, or any, season, and no matter what Liverpool did here, they may not have been invited.
The Champions League is box office, and, whatever their flaws, so are Liverpool. They drew 42,000 to this vast relic of Janos Kadar's Communism, contradictorily named in honour of a man who galloped away from his regime.
Debrecen's ground -- 120 miles away and too small for all those bright lights and superstars -- holds 10,200. The vast, silent majority came only for the spectacle.
They came to the wrong place. Liverpool, safely ahead after four minutes and threatening from every corner -- a novelty -- as their hosts extricated themselves from the debate over zonal and man marking by doing away with it entirely, turned the engine to idle and waited for news from Florence.
Their bodies may have been here, but their hearts were by the Arno.
In the stands, it was much the same. Texts were checked, web browsers opened, supporters thirsty for an update, any update. They need not have bothered. Juan Manuel Vargas's goal from the penalty spot, just what they did not want to hear, was announced over the tannoy, the hosts only too happy to oblige their illustrious guests, stumbling on the precipice of humiliation, ignoring Liverpool's pleas not to be told of the score.
Yet, as tempting a denouement as it is to suggest that Liverpool's troubles evaporated last night in one dubious, at best, spot-kick, such a conclusion would be misleading. Liverpool's hopes went in two minutes, one at Anfield, one at the Stade Gerland, some weeks ago.
They went when Daniel Agger turned to talk to Martin Skrtel to allow Sidney Govou to run free on Merseyside, and when Sotirios Kyrgiakos forgot to mark Lisandro Lopez.
True, they have had their share of bad luck -- that heart-breaking Lopez goal should have been ruled out for an offside against Michel Bastos in the build-up, and Lyon could, and should, have been beaten long before the dying seconds three weeks earlier, but Benitez has spent five years making his own luck. He, and his team, cannot cede responsibility now.
For next year, if there is a next year, lessons must be learned. There must be none of the presumption that Carragher also spoke of, the idea that Liverpool will qualify for the group stages simply because they always do.
There can be none of the slips of concentration which have brought Liverpool to this point for the first time in Benitez's tenure. The Champions League is for the elite. Also-rans tend to get what they deserve. No matter who they are.
WHAT NEXT FOR LIVERPOOL...
FIORENTINA'S victory over Lyon has rendered Liverpool's final group match, at home to the Italian side, meaningless for the Merseyside club.
Liverpool, instead, will join seven other Champions League drop-outs in the last 32 of the Europa League in February.
Financially, their elimination means a budgetary shortfall of some £2.4m, as Liverpool plan to qualify for the last 16 of the Champions League every season. They stand to recoup that, though, should they reach the quarter-finals of the Europa League. (© Daily Telegraph, London)
- Andy Hampson
Irish Independent
