Liverpool 1 - 2 Fiorentina : Liverpool's worst-ever campaign

• zocoss

  9 Dec 09, 12:54

  BENITEZ MAKES CHAMPIONS LEAGUE VOW

  

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  Rafael Benitez has vowed to take Liverpool back into the Champions League as they prepare for the embarrassment of a dead rubber against Fiorentina on Wednesday.

  Liverpool are already out of this season's competition having failed to finish in the top two in Group E, a humiliating experience for the five-time European Cup winners.

  That will truly hit home at Anfield against an impressive Italian side who beat the Reds 2-0 in September at the start of a terrible run for Benitez and his side.

  Liverpool had won six on the trot ahead of the match in Florence, but have managed just two wins in 13 since.

  Benitez will finally give £20million midfielder Alberto Aquilani his full debut, four months after he arrived at the club, but that could well be the only thing to brighten the night for the Liverpool fans.

  Benitez knows that the only way to get back into next season's Champions League is to finish in the top four of the Barclays Premier League, on current form not an easy task.

  But he said: "I am convinced we will have Champions League football back here next season.

  "We have a good team, a good squad and we can win games in a row now. We have not lost in six and kept three consecutive clean sheets, that is positive and an improvement on what was happening a few weeks ago.

  "We know what it means to play in the Champions League. The players certainly understand.

  "We have the right experience and I am confident we will finish in the top four, at least, so we must concentrate on our league games to achieve that.

  "We have Arsenal next, then Wigan in midweek before Portsmouth away the following Saturday. We must win those games to get ourselves back into a strong position to make sure we do qualify for the tournament next season."

• dragg

  10 Dec 09, 08:39

  i think he cant make it in england.

  he won it in spain and since then.....

  he is just like ramos, only luckier coz he has gerrard.

   

• iceFatboy

  10 Dec 09, 10:49

  IMHO, I do agree with the views on last football focus, that Liverpool is too good not to get UCL place. To be fair, I think Gunners are still just a bit ahead and should get 3rd.

  City/Spus are still a bit behind in quality/experience..

  However, given the long season ahead, anything can change.

   

• zocoss

  10 Dec 09, 11:03

  

   

   

  Liverpool  1  -  2  Fiorentina

   

   

  RAFA BENITEZ has spent the entire season desperately chasing consistency.

  How depressing for the Kop boss that he has finally found it.

  For Fiorentina's dramatic Anfield victory was a sickening familiar example of all that has gone wrong with Liverpool's Euro campaign.

  Two late goals at home to Lyon, another when they visited France...

  Now they can add a third to the list after the Italians staged the latest Merseyside Champions League smash and grab.

  And with it they handed the Reds a slice of history they were so keen to avoid - losing two successive home games in Europe for the first time in their glorious history.

  Mind you, their history is just about all that IS glorious about Liverpool right now, after another evening of huffing and puffing, yet not finding the final gust to blow the house down.

  A goal to the good, thanks to Yossi Benayoun's header, they had plenty of chances to put this game to bed and bow out of Europe's premier competition on a high before their descent into the Europa League, the competition dubbed the Channel Five trophy.

  Instead, they were again carved open at the back as two sucker punches left them down and out.

  First the back four was stretched to breaking point when Alberto Gilardino's lay-off handed Martin Jorgensen the chance to drill a low equaliser.

  And, with the three extra minutes all but up, Gilardino popped up to seal Liverpool's misery, side-footing home from bang in front after Juan Vargas' low cross picked him out without a defender in sight.

  It was almost a carbon copy of Lyon's late winner here in October, albeit from the opposite flank.

  Yet it was one Christmas-time repeat the Kop would have given anything to avoid - especially after a night which had actually given them more to cheer, than fear, for once.

  Fernando Torres pulled on a red shirt for the first time in over a month when he reappeared from the bench for the final 25 minutes.

  Steven Gerrard took another giant stride towards full fitness, as he charged around like a man chasing another Euro triumph, rather than bidding farewell to the Champions League for a year.

  It had not gone unnoticed around Anfield that Manchester United's win in Germany 24 hours earlier came without FIFTEEN first-team squad stars.

  Nor, either, had the fact that Michael Owen's four group stage goals was only one less than Liverpool managed between them in this year's Champions League.

  So when Benayoun got a touch to Gerrard's 45th-minute free-kick, you could sense the relief at something going right at last.

  Not that they deserved it, after Diego Cavalieri - getting a chance ahead of Pepe Reina - made superb saves from Lorenzo De Silvestri and Riccardo Montolivo.

  But Liverpool's lead lasted until the 63rd minute, when Jorgensen popped up with a low strike which left Cavalieri with no chance.

  If that was not bad enough, Gilardino's dramatic winner left Liverpool stumbling, rather than storming, into the Europa League.

   

   

• Poignant

  10 Dec 09, 13:30

  good job.

  cont to trust rafael ya, kop?

• KnowMyPower

  10 Dec 09, 17:03

  I love liverpool, but I dont like the manager style of defensive play. Too cautious. NO guts no glory. Fat and balding man are dangerous people.

• Medicated Oil

  12 Dec 09, 07:42

  Whether the team is good or confident, the result is the proof.

  Liverpool at present is not good enough to be top four or play champion league.

  Without Stevie and Torres, it is a so-so team.

  With the manager not taking responsibility and insisting that they can improve, the bubble is already cracking with more defeat.

  He should be sacked in Jan 2010.

• Poignant

  12 Dec 09, 12:07

  i think even with steven and fernando, we're just a so-so team.

  without them, we're totally nothing.

  the way we play our football, omg -.-

• mrwonderful

  13 Dec 09, 04:31

  Liverpool's first team defenders are worse than Man Utd or Chelsea's second team defenders.