Liverpool Crashes out of the Champions League

Liverpool crashed out of the Champions League last night despite winning their match against Debrecen in the Hungarian capital.

French international David Ngog's first half strike put the Reds ahead of Debrecen in the must-win group-stage match. Liverpool, who won the Champions League in 2005 and were runners-up two years ago, needed to not only win their match but also needed Lyon to beat Fiorentina order to reach the Final 16 for the knock-out stages of the competition.

Unfortunately for the Reds, Fiorentina beat Lyon 1-0 in their match in Tuscany, ensuring that Fiorentina progressed at Liverpool's expense. This is the first time in six years that Liverpool has failed to make it past the group stages of the European competition. Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez was left ruing the late goals conceded by his team against Lyon. They had been beaten 2-1 by the French champions at Anfield before drawing 1-1 at the Stade Gerland.

"It was our own fault in the end, the late goals we have conceded along the way have cost us," said Benitez. "We have been so good in the last few years that maybe people think it is easy to qualify in all competitions. You have to be disappointed. We knew we had to win and we did. We can't change what happened in the other match, but at least we did our job. If you look at the games, two late goals made a massive difference."

Liverpool is expected to suffer a budgetary shortfall of about £2.4m for this season as a consequence of their group exit and this could be made worse if they continue their run of bad form in the Premier League and  fail to finish in the top four, adding another £10m loss. This would have a significant impact on the asking price of £100m for a 25% stake in Liverpool, which the owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett are looking to sell.