Reds miracle fails to materialise

Ngog: Irrelevant goal

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The soul searching taking place at Liverpool this season will intensify after the five-time kings of Europe crashed out of the UEFA Champions League group stages despite winning 1-0 at Debrecen.

Rafa Benitez's Reds travelled to Hungary with their boss admitting his side needed a miracle to reach the last 16, and the Spaniard's worst fears were confirmed as Fiorentina defeated Lyon in Florence to qualify at the expense of his team.

The three points for the Italians in Tuesday's other match in Group E rendered events in Budapest completely irrelevant as a first-half goal from French striker David Ngog will now take a back seat to plans for the Europa League.

Ngog handed Liverpool the perfect start after just four minutes, applying a glancing touch to Jamie Carragher's header across goal from a Fabio Aurelio cross, but he and his team-mates were left to rue the late draw in Lyon at the beginning of November.

Benitez will take solace in ending a winless run that stretches back to the Premier League success over Manchester United in October but he will also know that a failure to reach the knockout stages for the first time in his tenure will only increase tension in a wretched season.

The cost is little more than a couple of million pounds this season for Liverpool, who continually stress that they never budget for anything but the group stages.

But it is a severe blow to the esteem of a true European power who have suffered a fall from grace few would have predicted when the competition started.

The true damage comes next season if they fail to finish in the Premier League's top four, something they are far from certain of. That would see them lose a cool £10m immediately and put further question marks over the financial direction the club is facing.

Nerves

Liverpool had Glen Johnson and Aurelio back from injury, otherwise it was the same side that drew with Manchester City on Saturday - with Ryan Babel out with an ankle injury and Yossi Benayoun on the bench, suggesting that his hamstring injury is still not completely healed.

Debrecen made eight changes from the side that beat Honved in the Hungarian league at the weekend, and included seven of the side that lost 1-0 in the opening group match back in September at Anfield.

And Liverpool could not have asked for a better start to settle any nerves as they went ahead after just four minutes with the Hungarians having barely touched the ball.

Aurelio's cross from the right curled to the far post for Carragher to head back across goal, where Ngog guided the ball with the outside of his right foot in off the keeper and the far post.

Twice Dirk Kuyt narrowly failed to get on the end of close-range crosses as Liverpool sought a second.

But they began to get sloppy, giving the ball away with over-ambitious passes which wasted the impressive movement that had Debrecen struggling.

Debrecen also gave away a lot of early free-kicks as they struggled to contain Liverpool, and Dutch referee Bjorn Kuipers lost patience and booked Zoltan Szelesi for a foul on Steven Gerrard.

Vukasin Poleksic twice saved well from Ngog, with Liverpool having 70 per cent of the possession.

But news of a Fiorentina goal against Lyon was enough to silence the travelling support and change the mood.

Confidence

Debrecen's first opportunity soon followed with Gergely Rudolf heading wide when unmarked in the area. Liverpool needed, at least, to settle the issue with a second goal in this match as Debrecen continued to grow in confidence.

Poleksic made another fine save to turn away a close-range Gerrard effort after he was set up by Johnson.

Debrecen then sent on striker Adamo Coulibaly in place of Peter Szakaly. The big Frenchman had caused Liverpool plenty of problems earlier in the season.

Now nerves were getting to the Liverpool men as they toiled to clinch the match.

Emiliano Insua lost possession to Rudolf on the edge of the box, regaining the ball as the forward threw himself down in the box.

Agger's run set up a chance for Gerrard but he drove high over from the edge of the box.

Debrecen players were going down at every opportunity now, drawing howls of anger from the home fans.

Benayoun came on for Ngog after 77 minutes, with Debrecen replacing Marcell Fodor with Tibor Dombi a minute later.

Carragher headed an Aurelio corner just wide but the second goal remained elusive for Liverpool.

Kuyt was now the central striker with Benayoun on the right, but it was Liverpool on the defensive as Rudolf forced Jose Reina into a save from a fierce angled drive.

Liverpool sent on Andrea Dossena for Aurelio with a couple of minutes left, Alberto Aquilani replacing Gerrard in injury time.

There was still time for Coulibaly to have a shot kicked clear by Reina as Liverpool clung onto their lead.