Defeat by a Besiktas team who began the contest without a point or a goal in Group A and could have been out of sight before the finish marked a new low for Liverpool in a dispiriting campaign. It is a campaign that has borne no resemblance to the clinical efficiency of old but then neither have Liverpool. A repeat of 2004, when they needed to beat Olympiakos in the final group game to advance en route to the final pulsating triumph at the Ataturk Stadium the following year, is looming in Marseille on December 11, if they are not already out of it by then.
Their margin for error now is to all intents zero. Nine points from their three remaining fixtures are essential to a club heavily reliant on the riches of the Champions League along with its prestige.
But first things first. Liverpool are not qualified to ponder immaculate future returns when the present output is so poor and there is little evidence of a recovery under way. Benitez's team almost conjured the improbable here, Peter Crouch squandering a glorious chance to equalise in the dying desperate seconds, yet it was only in that frantic reckoning that the visitors resembled a side capable of complementing possession with a genuine threat. For the second game in succession Sami Hyypia registered an own-goal but, unlike at Everton on Saturday, there was no reprieve at a raucous Inonu Stadium.
The setting for Liverpool's latest ordeal was more akin to a political rally than a Champions League tie between two teams desperate for their first group win. Outside the arena were banners calling for an invasion of northern Iraq and war against the Kurdish rebel organisation, the PKK, and inside a lone bugler sounded a tribute to the Turkish soldiers killed by the group in recent weeks. "This is an important victory for the nation, given the men we have lost in the east," said the Besiktas coach, Ertugrul Saglam. Amid a sea of Turkish flags one supporter broke forth to plant the national banner in the centre of the pitch, only for the pole to break as it struck the grass. The symbolic failure had no lingering effect on the team or an exuberant crowd, however.
The home side had clearly taken their cue from Porto and unsettled Liverpool from the start, claiming in vain for a penalty for hands against Steve Finnan in their opening attack and going close through Serdar Kurtulus moments later. As in Portugal, Liverpool relinquished the initiative without hitting their stride and they were overrun by a team whose greatest asset was enthusiasm.
Liverpool had opportunity in an open first half, particularly when Andriy Voronin failed to profit before a gaping goal, but against Turkish opposition who were easily breached and careless with the pass Benítez's team were equally fallible. At times Liverpool performed like European novices and the mess that presented Besiktas with the lead typified a performance which improved only in the final third and demanded the introduction of Crouch alongside the busy but unthreatening Voronin and Dirk Kuyt.
An immaculate challenge by Jamie Carragher on Bobo turned into a calamity when the centre-half's clearance struck Finnan and rebounded to the Brazilian striker Serdar Ozkan. The midfielder's shot lacked power and accuracy but with a cruel deflection off the thigh of Hyypia it left José Reina stranded in goal.
With 45 minutes to salvage their European campaign Liverpool dominated possession but still it was Besiktas who carved the clearer chances, Bobo somehow missing from two yards before beating Hyypia to Rodrigo Tello's pass and scoring through Reina's legs with eight minutes to go. A superb Steven Gerrard header restored hope for Liverpool three minutes later but hope is all they have for the knockout stages now. And it is fading.
