Liverpool may have produced the miracle to recover from a seemingly impossible position to qualify from the group stage of the Champions League three years ago, but this time round it is out of their hands.   Ironically, the most important game of their season to date will not involve Rafael Benitez’s side, with Fiorentina’s encounter against Lyon effectively deciding the Merseysiders’ fate in the competition.   With their Premier League title dreams all but over for another year it will come down to the outcome in Florence to save their faltering campaign.

But Benitez’s continual misjudgment on players, Xabi Alonso’s loss, the constant wranglings with the club’s owners and of course ‘beachgate’ means Liverpool’s season has resembled a soap opera than a campaign firmly on course.

And quite a few in the red half of the City will be tempted to tune in to the game in Italy rather then watch the next installment of their own team’s shenanigans in Hungary.

No matter what the Reds do against Debrecen in Budapest, it will be immaterial if Fiorentina beat Lyon and even a draw would leave hopes dangling by a thread.

In that event, a heavy win will be required as a minimum in their final group game at Anfield against the Serie A side.

That scenario evokes memories of Liverpool’s famous 2-0 win over Roma in 2002, when Gerard Houllier’s team had to win by two clear goals to progress, and the more recent recovery against Olympiakos.

After falling behind to the Greek outfit four years ago, Benitez’s troops, in his first season in charge, had to score three goals to emerge from the group phase and they duly obliged. We all know what happened afterwards.

It will take something even more dramatic than that to ensure their passage to the last 16 if results go against them in the next set of fixtures though.

The biggest fear for their chances is that Lyon, who are already through, might go through the motions in Florence but they are seasoned campaigners and will more than likely respect the competition.

However, it is impossible to possess the same intensity as opponents who desperately need a result to qualify. The French champions might decide to rest some key players, and they have earned the right to do that.

But a team with no real pressure on their shoulders could relax and play with more freedom against an Italian side carrying the weight of expectation. The tantalising position they find themselves in doesn’t happen often, and if the occasion gets to them it won’t be a foregone conclusion by any means.

The biggest indictment of all however, is that Liverpool, with a stellar European record over the last five years, find themselves in such a precarious position but it’s a fair reflection of how they are performing at the moment.