Debrecen 0-1 Liverpool match report: The Daily Mirror verdict

Budapest may be the birthplace of Harry Houdini, but there was to be no miraculous Champions League escape act from Liverpool here last night.

The English side at least managed to keep - just - their side of the bargain, with a facile victory over the minnows of Debrecen, but events elsewhere conspired to condemn Rafael Benitez's side to a shame-faced skulking into the Europa League at the first hurdle.

His players were reduced to watching their hopes and dreams disappear as they viewed the final few minutes of the game in Italy on a monitor in the tunnel of the Ferenc Puskas Stadium.

And that enduring image of their fate in others' unwilling hands will remain to haunt Benitez and his side, because really, this is a desperate humiliation for Liverpool, given the quality of opposition in their group.

Debrecen never looked remotely good enough to play at this level at any time during this match bar the final few seconds, but both Lyon and Fiorentina, who progress through to the knockout stage at the Reds' expense, are not considerably better.

It shows the travails of the English club at the moment. Injury problems have certainly debilitated them this season, but really, they still have the strength in depth to have dealt with ordinary opponents, no matter who played. What they have lacked, though, is the confidence to do so.

That much was evident again last night, as they huffed and puffed against their Hungarian opponents, creating few chances along the way and even enduring a torrid final few minutes as the home side rallied and almost equalised when substitute Adamo Coulibaly smashed a point blank shot against Pepe Reina.

An early goal from youngster David Ngog offered the platform for victory, but there was a hesitancy in their finishing from that moment on, with Steven Gerrard even showing signs of fallibility when twice denied by the home keeper Polesksic just after the break.

If Liverpool are to pick themselves up from - whichever way you care to look at it - the disaster of going out of this competition, then they will need to find some confidence swiftly. The return of Fernando Torres will help, but so too will more mental strength from the fringe players who don't seem to truly believe they belong at this level.

Despite the crushing disappointment, Benitez will be given until the end of the season to turn things around at Anfield, with MD Christian Purslow insisting the club simply refuse to hit the panic button.

But now the Spanish coach must inspire his team to much greater heights in the second half of the season, if he is not to face an exacting enquiry into the state of team affairs at the end of the campaign.

First though, he must pick his side up from the floor of their dismay at being only the third English side to fail to reach the knockout stage since the inception of the Champions League, because Liverpool face their bitter local rivals Everton in the Merseyside derby on Sunday, where defeat at Goodison is unthinkable.

If Liverpool can take any small mercy from this game, it is that they at last kept a clean sheet, and also at least got the early goal they required from the encouraging source of Ngog, who is one for the future of the Anfield club.

The 20-year-old scored from close range on four minutes, and while it was hardly a classic finish - he bundled the ball home from three yards out after Carragher had headed Aurelio's delivery back across goal - he was still in the right place at the right time, which is out of the Fernando Torres handbook at least.

The French kid has promise, that much is certain, because he has the pace that modern football is based on. But Benitez will wonder, as he reflects on his side's stuttering European campaign, if he should have been exposed quite so much as he has this season, because of the lack of back-up for the main striker.

At least Ngog was lively, which was more than could be said for much of the rest of the first half, given that Debrecen were lethargic in their pursuit of an equaliser, and the visitors perhaps distracted by events in Florence.

That was to be the pattern for the whole evening, with ears cocked around the stadium - and certainly on the Liverpool bench - for news of how Lyon were faring in Italy, in their quest for the result that would offer a lifeline to the English club in this competition.

For a while, there was hope as Fiorentina struggled to make the breakthrough, but on 26 minutes a gloom descended on the end containing the travelling support as news arrived of an Italian opening goal.

That blow seemed to be reflected in Liverpool's performance, with their belief draining as a metaphor for their season so far.