Left field

from Reuters Soccer Blog:

No Great Escape for Liverpool

Liverpool hopes of one more great Champions League escape were dashed on Tuesday night, as Fiorentina sealed their place alongside Olympique Lyon with a 1-0 win over the French side, leaving the English team's 1-0 success against Debrecen irrelevant.

Liverpool, of course, only have themselves to blame for leaving their fate in the hands of a team that had already secured their own qualification.

There will doubtless be a lot more criticism of Rafa Benitez, his transfer dealings and the perceived failures of man management, but the analysis of exactly why Liverpool failed to progress can wait for another post.

For now, consider one question: Might this result actually work in Liverpool's long-term favour?

The club could certainly have done with the revenue from a run to the semi-finals or beyond but, with the best will in the world, did this season's team ever really look capable of making it as far as Madrid?

With a squad that (everyone has said) is inferior to last year's, maybe it will prove in their interests that they no longer have to juggle Champions League and Premier League campaigns. They can now have a leisurely tilt at the Europa League -- if they make it to the final it will be an enjoyable run, if they don't ... well, who really cares? -- and concentrate on doing something about that dreadful domestic form.

The priority, as always, must be to secure qualification for the group stage of next year's Champions League. That 19th league title looks as elusive as ever but a top-four finish may have just become a more realistic possibility.

Soccer trumps rugby in Florence

It had long been decided that Italy’s rugby team would host world champions South Africa in Florence on Saturday Nov. 21.

Then soccer got in the way. Fiorentina, who use Florence’s only big stadium the Stadio Franchi, were due to play Parma at home on the 22nd but when they were drawn to play at home on Tuesday Nov. 24 against Olympique Lyon in the Champions League, the Parma game was moved to the 21st.

Suddenly there was a big problem and now the rugby match will take place in Udine instead despite tickets already having gone on sale.

Is this a case of soccer taking undue precedence over rugby or is it just a tale of ineptitude?

Even if Fiorentina’s game against Parma had been kept on the Sunday, that still would have meant two soccer matches and a rugby game on the same already-weathered pitch within four days.

Places such as England don’t have these problems because there are generally separate stadiums for rugby and soccer.