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90 Minutes to save a season? Liverpool face huge test.

Published by Ian John on November 4, 2009

Tonight sees possibly the biggest game of the season so far for Rafa Benitez and his Liverpool team. While the five league defeats may smart, and the 2-0 victory over Manchester United may have brought some much needed relief for the Anfield faithful, tonight’s game in the Stade Gerland in Lyon, will probably decide whether Liverpool will progress into the knockout phase of the Champions League this season. Anything short of a victory will take matters out of their hands and while a draw could still see them qualify, they would be reliant on results going their way in other games in order to make the last sixteen of the competition.

I would like to say that Liverpool’s woes this season have been a surprise, but unfortunately that isn’t really the case. While many experts were bullish about their title hopes before the season began, Liverpool showed no real sign of being ready to sustain a title challenge during pre-season, incurring some poor losses along the way including a 3-0 reverse against Espanol in Spain. Their poor start to the league campaign was just a continuation of this miserable pre-season form.

Their Champions League story began with an unconvincing 1-0 home win over Debreceni, a team that both Lyon and Fiorentina have beaten comfortably in Hungary, scoring several goals into the process. Liverpool’s dreadful run of recent form can be traced back to their second outing in the Champions League, when Fiorentina, inspired by Stevan Jovetic, sauntered to a comfortable 2-0 victory in Florence. That put Liverpool under great pressure for the home tie with Lyon and when Yossi Benayoun fired the opener, many Liverpool fans breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn’t to last however as goals from substitutes Gonalons and Delgado put Liverpool to the sword in front of their own crowd and left them with just three points from their first three games, with Fiorentina on six and Lyon nine and the feeling is that Fiorentina are going to be on nine after their home game with Debreceni. Therefore nothing short of a win will suffice if Liverpool wish to have their champions league fate still in their own hands.

However that looks like a forlorn hope. Steven Gerrard didn’t travel to France with the party and while Fernando Torres did, his hernia is giving him real problems and while the injury can be “managed”, the truth is the Spaniard needs an operation to put it right. Gerrard too faces an operation to cure his groin injury and the fact is that Liverpool cannot afford to have their two players out, when they desperately need points in the league and the champions league, especially given their precarious financial position.

While the talk of pressure on Benitez may well be true, the fact is that financial constraints caused by Liverpool failing to progress to the next stage of the competition, and perhaps missing out on qualifying for it next season, would have severe repercussions off the field. A club already struggling for cash cannot fall out of the Champions League picture. Remember what happened to Leeds? While that may well be unthinkable at Anfield, it is a sobering thought ahead of tonights game.

There’s a lot resting on Fernando Torres and his hernia. It’s a gamble Rafa must take, but it is a dangerous one and one that could easily backfire.

Image courtesy of ***neveroffside*** at Flickr.com