Liverpool shocked by Fiorentina in Europe

Fiorentina 2 Liverpool 0. Liverpool's stop-start season continued last night after they threw away any momentum gathered during the 6-1 thrashing of Hull in the Premier League at the weekend by tamely succumbing to a comfortable home victory for Serie A side Fiorentina in Group E.

The visitors never recovered from a poor first half in which the Viola dictated the pace of play. The Italians were quick to close down any movement from the much-fancied Merseysiders, and they were able to swiftly turn defence into attack, troubling the Liverpool back line with their pace.

It will be scant consolation for Kop boss Rafa Benitez that both Fiorentina goals came from open play, even with the spotlight on dead ball situations that has been turned on Liverpool's defence in recent weeks. For young Montenegro international Stevan Jovetic, who was only in the side because Alberto Gilardino was suspended, a perfectly timed run was enough to beat the Reds' offside trap for the first goal of his brace on the half hour mark.

His second came from a Juan Vargas drive that the 19-year-old Jovetic diverted past Jose Reina with eight minutes left of the first period. Liverpool fought back after the interval, but were sorely missing the muscular presence of Javier Mascherano in the centre of the park. Chances came and went for Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard, with the Spaniard missing out on a late penalty shout.

"Never have I seen the team struggle as badly as they did in the first half," Benítez told the Times. "It was a poor performance. We had too many problems and too many mistakes, and we had to change everything. In the second half we were much better. In the first half, they were on top of us all the time and we were not doing the things that we had been talking about before the game. We were bad in everything."

With Lyon thrashing Hungarian champions Debrecen 4-0 in Budapest to take top spot in the table, Liverpool must recover from the chastening experience in Florence and get their Champions League campaign back on track. Their next European game is against the French side in three weeks time at Anfield. ·