In becoming the first French club to score here since St Etienne in 1977 Marseille have an away goal on which to cling at their daunting Stade Vélodrome in a fortnight. Liverpool may have dismissed a mediocre Bulgarian side in the last round but already reality has bitten deep into their Uefa Cup aspirations.
Frustration is festering again in these parts, with the boisterous singing echoing from the visitors' dressing room at the end making it clear where the advantage lies in this tie. "That will do my team talk for me for the second leg," said Gérard Houllier with a shrug. "We didn't play particularly well and they think it's over but I don't think it is."
Liverpool are capable of puncturing the poisonous atmosphere expected at the return but Marseille were the better side throughout here - swamping midfield and with their scorer Didier Drogba an imposing presence up front - and there is little to suggest they will be more adventurous in the return. Therein lies Houllier's greatest worry.
His side were lacklustre and uninspired here for the entire first half and, despite taking the lead, for long periods in the second. Indeed, they clicked into a presentably upbeat rhythm only during a 10-minute passage just after the interval and in the frantic finale. Then Fabien Barthez, a hate figure due to his on-going association with Manchester United, thwarted Milan Baros and Steven Gerrard, though Liverpool hardly merited greater reward.
Leaving Anfield with the last laugh will have tickled the loan player from Old Trafford. Barthez was well protected here, as much in midfield as by his immediate shield in defence, while Drogba wreaked havoc at the other end. The Ivorian was celebrating his 26th birthday and deserved his second-half plunder, pouncing on Camel Meriem's punt to ram the equaliser beyond the advancing Chris Kirkland.
Had Steve Marlet shown similar bite, Marseille might have left with an advantage. But the striker, on loan from Fulham, speared wide of an unguarded net early on after Drogba and Kirkland had collided. "It was a sitter," admitted Houllier, and not the kind of miss expected of an international forward who began the season - with Marseille - in the Champions League.
That is where Liverpool hope to end this term, though this will have been a lesson as to how far that competition may have progressed in their absence over the last 16 months. Marseille were abysmal in a group admittedly headed by Real Madrid and Porto but they had more nous about them here. Only when the home side rallied with their manager's sternly delivered half-time reminder ringing in their ears did Marseille threaten to buckle.
That, briefly, brought an advantage. Michael Owen's performance had been meandering dishearteningly until he spun and flicked Gerrard through on goal 10 minutes after the restart. The Liverpool captain crunched into a challenge with Barthez which left the pair prone on the turf for Milan Baros, beating the retreating Abdoulyae Meite to the loose ball, to toe-poke it gleefully into the corner.
Had the Czech forward followed that by finding a way beyond the France goalkeeper in the frenzy at the end, then Marseille's celebrations might have stuck in the throat. "It's the Mediterranean spirit in us," said the visiting coach Jose Anigo of his side's singing. "Excuse us for not crying." That could yet be reserved for Liverpool in the south of France.