The defending champions were chased out the Champions League last night but in truth they only really breathed fire when Eidur Gudjohnsen's goal gave them a flicker of hope and by then, you had to believe, it was all but over.
Liverpool join Chelsea in the quarter-finals but what was Rafael Benitez's greatest achievement last night? That his team made the attacking behemoth of Ronaldinho, Samuel Eto'o Lionel Messi and Deco look distinctly average, a team of sublime creativity who could barely muster a shot between them. This team who have played Europe's most seductive, thrilling football in recent years were tamed and restricted; a band of old masters who could remember the plot but none of the killer lines.
Mark it down alongside Anfield's most famous European nights of recent memory, to go alongside the victories over Roma in 2002, Olympiakos in 2004 and Chelsea in 2005. This time there was only a fraction of the drama and none of the twists but when the whistle blew it stood as a comparable achievement. Benitez's side had not just beaten the champions and thrown the competition wide open, but by the look of Barcelona at the end they may have brought the Rijkaard era to a close.
For so much of this match they made an extraordinary team look hopelessly ordinary and, as Rijkaard admitted, were unlucky not to have scored at least two in the first half. Jamie Carragher towered above that gilded front line of Messi, Eto'o and Ronaldinho and in midfield Deco was isolated and ineffectual for vast swathes of the game. Rijkaard's formation was extravagantly experimental and this was not the night for innovation.
When Gudjohnsen went round Pepe Reina to slip in the game's only goal on 75 minutes, Anfield remembered that Chelsea Champions League semi-final in 2005 and the anxiety levels rose. That night, the Icelandic striker had arrived at the back post with a few minutes left and lashed a volley into the Kop that could have won the game for Chelsea. But this was not a match that was ever really likely to slip from Liverpool's grasp.
Understated as ever, Benitez said that the intention had been to score. "We worked hard to the end with confidence and always tried to score and ensure we would qualify," he said. "We deserved to win, that's the main thing."
On a night when all that mattered was that Barcelona had been ousted, only Benitez could chide himself for the second home defeat in the space of four days. They almost did win in the closing stages when two of the substitutes combined, Jermaine Pennant's cross from the right met by Peter Crouch who could not quite steer his shot from close range under the bar.
Gudjohnsen's goal had raised the stakes but even then Liverpool did not look anything less than robust. "They were full of concentration, full of teamwork," Rijkaard said, "it is their way and they do it quite well."
That was not quite a compliment and neither was his description of how "difficult" Liverpool made it for Barcelona. "They were direct, they had depth and they make it difficult to get into dangerous positions around their box," he said. Maybe managers feel obliged to make it complicated when they come to face Benitez at Anfield but there was no doubting Rijkaard over elaborated.
He chose an unreadable line-up, three in a back line that looked increasingly vulnerable to Steven Gerrard on the right side of Liverpool's midfield. Deco got much less of the ball than he is accustomed to and in the first half Eto'o and Ronaldinho barely influenced the match - the Brazilian had his side's first shot on 36 minutes. In that time, Liverpool came close to deciding the tie for good.
John Arne Riise thumped a shot against the bar on 11 minutes and Momo Sissoko lobbed another against the woodwork after Victor Valdes had scuffed a clearance to the midfielder on 33 minutes. Then Craig Bellamy on the right hit a shot that Valdes pushed out, he picked himself up to stop Dirk Kuyt burying the rebound and, when Riise launched himself at the loose ball, Carles Puyol cleared it off the line.
After the hour, Eto'o was taken off for Ludovic Giuly and even that notoriously moody striker could not justify a strop as he walked over the touchline. In Barcelona's real hour of need he had been anonymous, unrecognisable from the player who was an integral part of last season's side. His team had briefly flickered and any conviction they had, seemed to be draining out of them.
On 53 minutes, Barcelona went close for the first time, Deco picked the ball up just outside the area, as he had scarcely managed all night, and threaded the ball into Ronaldinho. He spun away from Carragher, breezed past Steve Finnan and curled a shot around Reina that clipped the post. It looked like there could have been a bobble off the turf as he struck it but such trivialities are hardly worthy excuses for a team like Barça.
When Gudjohnsen came on with less than 20 minutes remaining for Lilian Thuram, Barcelona had five strikers on the pitch, at some point it seemed they would either make the breakthrough or collapse altogether. And with 15 minutes left they finally made it work. Xavi's pass through Liverpool was ideally weighted, and Gudjohnsen sprung the offside trap, dribbled round Reina and slipped the ball in.
That was as much as they managed. This was Benitez's night and while the Premiership may be a lost cause, glory in the Champions' League could be saving his season.