Early exit is the ultimate fall from grace -- now boss must pick up the pieces at Everton

It came down to an unedifying scene, with Steven Gerrard and his team-mates standing in a cramped tunnel next to the pitch, staring blankly at a television screen in hope of salvation.

But it did not arrive and, as the Liverpool players trudged to the dressing room, it was in the grim knowledge they will be slumming it in the Europa League in February.

Fiorentina's 1-0 win over Lyon means Liverpool, despite beating Debrecen thanks to David Ngog's fourth-minute goal, are out of the Champions League, no matter whether they defeat the Italian team at Anfield in a fortnight.

PAINFUL

If they emerge triumphant in the Europa League final in Hamburg next May, a prospect raised by their ever-optimistic supporters as they stood in the cold after the final whistle, last night's anguish will seem worthwhile. But, really, it is a painful fall from grace for a team that thrashed Real Madrid 5-0 on aggregate as recently as March.

Liverpool could end up with 10 points in their group -- a total with which only one team, Werder Bremen, have been eliminated from the Champions League since 2004 -- but this is not a hard-luck story.

It will be remembered as a false start, a failure to launch, a campaign undone by a loss of concentration in the closing stages against Lyon at Anfield, where defeat was snatched from the jaws of victory, and the final minute against the French club at the Stade Gerland, where a late equaliser left them in need of a miracle.

At times like this, it is customary to focus on the financial consequences of elimination. But, while any loss of revenue is unwelcome for a club with debts in excess of £250m, the far greater impact will be felt by Rafael Benitez and his players.

Jamie Carragher recalled on Monday how failure at the same stage in 2002-03 marked the beginning of the end for Gerard Houllier's Liverpool team, sending them into a spiral of depression from which they never truly escaped.

So Benitez will prefer for once to draw on the example of Manchester United, for who elimination in the 2005-06 season represented rock bottom and the catalyst for a fight-back.

After finishing second to Chelsea in the Premier League that season, Alex Ferguson's side have won three consecutive league titles and lifted the European Cup in 2008.

The hope for Liverpool is that rock bottom is in the past. This was only their second win in a wretched run of 11 matches in which their ambitions for the season have been devastated.

But, with a Merseyside derby against Everton at Goodison Park to come on Sunday -- and with the participation of Fernando Torres still in the balance as he battles with his groin problem -- it was crucial that they re-established at least a veneer of confidence in the Ferenc Puskas Stadium against a limited Debrecen.

As a spectacle, it was a mismatch. After 25 minutes, the scoreboard stated that Liverpool had had 71pc of the possession, a remarkable figure at this level for a team playing away from home.

But far more pertinent was the statistic that emerged three minutes earlier, saying that Fiorentina had taken the lead against Lyon. Liverpool's players did not know at the time but, from that moment on, they were slipping into the Europa League.

Liverpool had done their bit up to that point, taking a fourth-minute lead through Ngog. The 20-year-old French forward has, like Thierry Henry, been vilified of late -- in his case for the dive that won a point-saving penalty in the 2-2 draw with Birmingham City -- but, even if he does not begin to match the threat of Torres, he is slowly developing the knack of scoring goals in a Liverpool shirt.

This one was a poacher's effort, flicked home from inside the six-yard box after Carragher had headed Fabio Aurelio's corner back across goal.

Ngog always looked Liverpool's most likely scoring threat, but the demands of the Torres role, at the apex of a 4-2-3-1 formation, are such that he had to be.

Gerrard, who has been hampered by a groin injury for much of the season, is still not at his best, but he at least seemed to enjoy himself at times here, a crisp lay-off in the 38th minute leading to another opportunity for Ngog, whose shot was well saved by Vukasin Poleksic.

ENTERPRISING

For 15 minutes after half-time Liverpool produced some neat football that should have yielded a second goal. Emiliano Insua flashed a fierce shot just wide of the near post and Lucas Leiva headed just wide from Dirk Kuyt's cross.

Then Gerrard saw a close-range effort well saved after a fine build-up involving Ngog, Kuyt and the ever-enterprising Glen Johnson, who, along with Daniel Agger, took every opportunity to charge forward from defence.

There were times when it seemed that the confidence was returning, but that did not stop them looking flummoxed when Debrecen introduced Adamo Coulibaly, a French forward who barely qualifies as a journeyman, alongside the hitherto isolated Gergely Rudolf. As Liverpool tired in the closing stages, Pepe Reina was required to make decent saves from both strikers, sparing his team greater ignominy on a night when, even in victory, they lost.

A footnote. Alberto Aquilani came on for the final 45 seconds of stoppage time, a laughably brief cameo for the lesser-spotted £20m summer signing from Roma. His time will come in the Europa League, but it is a stage that he and Liverpool felt that they had outgrown long ago.

©The Times, London

- Oliver Kay