PARIS: Five-time champions Liverpool were knocked out of the Champions League on Tuesday as a 1-0 win for Group E rivals Fiorentina against Lyon took the Italians into the knockout phase.

Liverpool’s 1-0 win over Hungarian minnows

Debrecen was only good enough to ensure a place

in the knockout stage of the Europa League. Premier League rivals Arsenal, by contrast, eased into the knockout stage when they beat Standard Liege 2-0 to finish top of Group H.

Champions Barcelona can also be more upbeat about defending their title. They had faced a risk of elimination but Russia’s Rubin Kazan could only draw 0-0 at home to Dynamo Kiev and then the Catalan giants put on a grand display to beat Inter Milan 2-0. Barca now lead Group F on eight points, two clear of Inter and Rubin, who play each other in Milan in a fortnight.

At least Liverpool have the consolation of the Europa League, whereas Scottish football plumbed new depths as Rangers lost 2-0 at home to Stuttgart in Group G. That result, combined with Unirea Urziceni’s 1-0 victory over Sevilla in Romania, left Walter Smith’s men without any hope of reaching the second-tier European competition.

Liverpool got the start they needed when they took an early lead through David Ngog but were unable to make much of an impression after the news filtered through that Fiorentina had taken the lead via a Juan Vargas penalty.

Barcelona got off to a dream start by taking the lead through Gerard Pique and added a second as youth academy graduate Pedro shot home. Inter coach Jose Mourinho was for once generous in defeat. “Barcelona were the only team that played and they played very well,” said Mourinho, who used to work as a translator for the late Sir Bobby Robson at the Catalan club.

Arsenal took the lead through Samir Nasri in the first half and added a second through a long-range effort by Denilson shortly before the half-time break.

Rangers’ hopes of salvaging something looked to be dead in the water early on as a much more vibrant Stuttgart side took an early lead through Sebastian Rudy. The German side wrapped it up early in the second-half as Rudy turned provider, setting up Zdravko Kuzmanovic to head home and end Rangers’ European campaign.