Alberto Gilardino’s stoppage time winner ensured Liverpool ended a disastrous Champions League campaign with a 2-1 defeat against Fiorentina at Anfield on Wednesday.
Yossi Benayoun’s first half header had given the hosts a 43rd-minute lead against the run of play before Martin Jorgensen leveled for the Italians after half time.
And in a finish which was typical of Liverpool’s lackluster season, Gilardino struck in the dying seconds to give the Italians their second victory this season over the five-times European champions.
Reds skipper Steven Gerrard said Liverpool only had themselves to blame for their plight.
“If you look at the whole campaign, it was not good enough from our point of view but now we need to try to qualify for the same competition next year,” the England midfielder said. “It wasn’t our strongest team tonight but we gave a good account of ourselves. We were a bit unlucky to lose in the end.”
It was not all doom and gloom for manager Rafa Benitez as Alberto Aquilani produced an encouraging display on his long-awaited first start for the club while Fernando Torres also returned from injury.
Liverpool fans have waited four months for Aquilani to make his first start in a red shirt. But having been out for so long he is clearly going to need time before he starts repaying some of his huge transfer fee. The Italian moved to Merseyside in August as a midfield replacement for Xabi Alonso, who joined Real Madrid. However, he arrived while still recovering from a summer knee operation and had not started a game for his new club until now.
In what proved to be a low-key debut, Aquilani demonstrated some decent touches and clever passing without being spectacular, but Gerrard is confident he will prove to be a good signing.
“The boy’s a player, there’s no two ways about it,” Gerrard said. “He sees a pass, he’s on the same wavelength and I have no doubts he’ll turn into a fantastic player for this club.”
With Forentina safely through to the last 16 and Liverpool resigned to playing in the Europa League after Christmas, this was a dead rubber.
At times it seemed as though Anfield was staging a friendly as both sides showed a distinct lack of urgency, the visitors carving out the best chances before Benayoun broke the deadlock.
Holders Barcelona and Inter Milan secured their places in the Champions League knockout stages at the last throw of the dice on Wednesday.
Joining this pair on the final batch of group games were Stuttgart and Olympiakos to complete the 16-team cast-list for the second round starting in February.
Barca had the luxury of traveling to Dynamo Kiev knowing that even a defeat would not necessarily spell a premature end to their pursuit of a fourth European crown.
In the end they won 2-1 with goals coming from Xavi and European Footballer of the year Lionel Messi to top Group F.
“It was a match of unique importance for us and I’m happy that all my players showed true understanding of that fact,” Barcelona manager Josep Guardiola said.
Inter faced a must-win game at home to Russia’s Rubin Kazan, and duly completed the mission with former Barcelona star Samuel Eto’o producing the opener in their 2-0 win.
That sealed Inter the runners-up spot and potentially shored up Jose Mourinho’s position as manager with rumours before kick-off that he could be out at the end of the season if Inter didn’t go through.
Mourinho downplayed the pre-match speculation about his job saying: “no one at Inter has said anything to me, not before the game and not after it.”
Arsenal, already confirmed as Group H winners, which theoretically means a more favorable second-round draw, lost 1-0 at Olympiakos, with the Greeks grabbing the runners-up spot.
All that was left to decide in Group E was which of Fiorentina and Lyon would emerge as table toppers. Lyon ended their first-round campaign on a high, routing Debrecen 4-0, but lost out on the No. 1 place after Fiorentina beat Liverpool.
In Group G, already qualified Sevilla took top spot and were joined in the next round by Stuttgart.
The Germans responded to a change of manager — with former Tottenham boss Christian Gross replacing Markus Babbel this week — in suitably positive fashion, racing to the quickest 3-0 lead in Champions League history.
Stuttgart killed off their tie against Romanians Unirea Urziceni, who got one back for a 3-1 defeat.
“That was a fantastic start and it was great to take a 3-0 lead so quickly,” goalkeeper Jens Lehmann said. “It is a paradox that we are the 16th best side in the Bundesliga and we are also amongst the best 16 teams in Europe.”
The second-round draw is scheduled for next Friday.
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