A last-minute Lisandro equaliser left Liverpool all but out of this season's competition. On the plus side, their passage into the Europa League knockout stages is almost certainly assured

Good evening all: The white flags have been laid down and the surrender monkeys are fighting back. It's been a good week so far for French clubs in the Champions League, with Bordeaux and Marseille notching up wins against Bayern Munich and FC Zurich respectively. Tonight Lyon will hope to make it a trifecta when they take on Liverpool in a match many visiting supporters are describing as "the most important match this club has played since last Saturday's drubbing at the hands of Fulham."

Presuming that Fiorentina beat Debrecin in tonight's other Group E game, anything other than a win for Liverpool tonight will almost certainly end their hopes of making the knockout stages of this season's Champions League (progress would still be mathematically possible, but would require the kind of miracle Liverpool just aren't in the running for these days).

Arriving at the Stade Gerland on the back of six defeats out of their last seven matches in all competitions, Rafa Benitez has been further hamstrung by injuries to Steven Gerrard, Albert Riera, Martin Kelly, Martin Skrtel, Glen Johnson, Fabio Aurelio, Alberto Aquilani, Daniel Agger and David Ngog. Having not been named in his side's Champions League squad, Philipp Degen is also unavailable for selection.

That said, Lyon come into tonight's game with problems of their own. Three central defenders down as a result of Jean-Alain Boumsong, Mathieu Bodmer and Cléber Anderson being out injured, manager Claude Puel was also forced to strip Sidney Govou of the team captaincy after the midfielder was photographed lurching around a nightclub a couple of days before Lyon's 1-0 win against the Sarah Cracknell fronted English dance act St Etienne.

Exciting team news: Despite being far from 100% fit, in need of a hernia operation and having had an artist's impression of his spermatic cord and scrotum published in the Sport section of yesterday's Guardian, Fernando Torres will start for Liverpool. Line-ups to follow ...

Lyon (4-3-3): Lloris, Reveillere, Cris, Toulalan, Cissokho; Pjanic, Makoun, Kallstrom; Gomis, Bastos, Lisandro.

Subs: Vercoutre, Ederson, Govou, Delgado, Tafer, Gassama, Gonalons.

Liverpool (4-2-3-1): Reina, Carragher, Agger, Kyrgiakos, Insua; Lucas, Mascherano; Kuyt, Voronin, Benayoun, Torres.

Subs: Cavalieri, Aquilani, Babel, Ngog, Spearing, Darby, Ayala.

Referee: Frank De Bleeckere (Belgium)

First email of the evening: "What a vile Liverpool lineup," writes Rich Wellum. "Torres and Benayoun apart, there's more talent to be seen at a cross-dressing Carnage party in Brighton."

That really annoying advert for a well known betting exchange has just been on. You know, that one where Danny Baker does the voiceover and a load of thirtysomething actors pretending to be football "fans"/white van driving "geezahs" are sitting around a testosterone-charged betting "front room" (whatever the eff that is) discussing ... y'know, football. And who's team is ... y'know, the best.

A couple of them look as if they're about to square up like a pair of chimps, but eventually decide to put their money where their mouths are instead. And that's it. There's no punchline. No jokes. No gag or point of any kind ... so much so that a mate of mine thought these were actually genuine punters, not actors.

I disagreed.

After looking as if we were about to square up like a pair of chimps, we decided to put our money where our mouths were. I won £10 from him by proving one of the people involved was Northern Ireland comedian Michael Smiley, a Brixton resident who played Tyres O'Flaherty in Spaced.

Pre-match niceties: Click-clack! Click-clack! Click-clack! The teams emerge from the tunnel, with Lyon's players kitted out in navy strip with red trim and Liverpool's in all white.

1 min: Liverpool kick off. They've got out of stickier situations than this one in the Champions League before, but never with a team that looked this dismal on paper. The first throw-in of the night goes to Liverpool and their stand-in right-back Jamie Carragher takes it.

2 min: Liverpool have lined up with Torres alone up front with Voronin behind him and Kuyt and Benayoun to his right and left respectively. Lucas and Mascherano are patrolling the space between them and the back four of Carragher, Agger, Kyrgiakos and Insua. Jayzus wept. That's a Liverpool team? Seriously? If they sent that side to play your pub-team in a pre-season friendly you'd be underwhelmed and have every right to feel aggrieved.

3 min: Dirk Kuyt swings a cross into the Lyon penalty area from the right wing, in the general direction of Fernando Torres. Cris clears.

4 min: In a challenge with Lisandro, Jamie Carragher handles the ball, then bundles the Lyon striker off the ball, prompting the referee to blow his whistle and award a free-kick to the home team in the Liverpool right-back position. "What for?!?!" screeches Carragher, putting his hands on his head. Take your pick, Jamie.

7 min: Nothing comes from the free-kick. Moments before it was awarded, Lyon had the first shot of the night in anger, when a Michel Bastos 25-yard drive bounced in front of Pepe Reina, prompting the Liverpool goalkeeper grasped it to his chest.

8 min: Lyon attack down the left, courtesy of full-back Cissohko. He squares the ball across the edge of the penalty area, where Lisandro lays it off to Bastos. His shot is blocked.

9 min: For Lyon, Jean Makoun tries a shot from long range. High and wide. He'd been given the ball by Cris, who'd dispossessed Torres with a fine tackle on the right touchline and advanced up the field before teeing up his team-mate.

11 min: Insua advances down the left wing for Liverpool and attempts to squares a low ball into the Lyon penalty area. It takes a defelction off a defender on the way, bounces into the path of Torres standing about 12 yards out from goal. He snatches at it and prods the ball straight at Hugo Lloris in the Lyon goal. He should have scored.

14 min: Lyon attack down the left wing courtesy of Cissokho again. He sends a low cross into the Liverpool penalty area, which Daniel Agger hacks clear. The ball returns with interest when Lisandro tries a shot from distance. His effort is on target, but doesn't trouble Reina.

16 min: Liverpool go close again. Insua gets another ball in from the left, the ball bounces nicely for Kuyt in the penalty area and instead of blasting it past Lloris, he tries to place it and the goalkeeper is able to stretch out a hand and tip his effort over the bar. From the ensuing corner, Kuyt gets a near-post flick-on, but there's nobody at the back post to capitalise.

18 min: Lyon substitution: right-back Antoine Reveillere goes off, presumably injured, to be replaced by Lamine Gassama, a 20-year-old making his first appearance of the season.

20 min: Gassama gets his first touch of the season, picking up a pass and prodding the ball through the centre circle for Miralem Pjancic to chase. Sotiros Kyrigiakos beats him to it.

21 min: A reader has written in to accuse me of being racist for calling the French surrrender monkeys, while another, Thomas Cope, wants to know why both tonight's teams are playing without shirt sponsors.

25 min: Liverpool string about 30 passes in a row together to get the ball from thjeir goalkeeper Pepe Reina all the way up the field and then all the way back down the field to Pepe Reina. For a side that has to win tonight, they're doing a very passable impersonation of a team that would be more than content to draw.

27 min: Voronin blows a great chance to put Liverpool one up having been put clean through on goal by a long ball from Lucas in midfield. He let the ball drop over his right shoulder and bounce in front of him, but with only Hugo Lloris the Lyon goalkeeper to beat, he side-footed a feeble effort straight at him. Where's the guile? Why didn't he just blast it?

30 min: "Alcohol sponsorship is banned in France," writes Rob Sutton. "That is why Liverpool have none tonight. Lyon have none because they are French and no one wants to sponsor them."

31 min: The referee reaches for his pocket, pulls out a yellow card and waves it in Daniel Agger's face after penalising the Liverpool centre-half for a foul on Gomis. It was a fair kop.

33 min: Lisandro gets booked for upending Dirk Kuyt. "Monsieur Tual has it wrong," writes Brent Braga. "France is a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic nation. Your referring to the French as 'surrender monkeys' is chauvinistic, not racist."

34 min: Elsewhere in this group, Fiorentina are beating Debrecen 1-0 in Italy. If the scores were to remain the same in both matches, Liverpool would be in third place, five points behind Fiorentina, with only two games to play.

36 min: Agger and Benayoun combine well down the left wing, with the Israeli eventually pulling the ball back from the byline, only to see nobody following up in support. Liverpool are definitely having the better of things the longer the half goes on, but still appear to be playing very cautiously.

37 min: From the right flank, Carragher sends a searching cross into the Lyon penalty area. Benayoun contests the high ball, but Gassama the substitute heads clear.

39 min:Lyon are forced into another substitution: Miralem Pjanic, injured in a challenge with Emiliano Insua, off; Ederson on. It's a straight swap: one right sided midfielder for another.

41 min: Good news for Liverpool - Debrecen have equalised with Fiorentina in Italy.

42 min: "Liverpool have to play cautiously," writes Richard in Bangkok, by way of reply to my comment in the 36th minute. "Insua could lose an elephant in a field and Kyrgiakos and Carragher can't tackle." To be fair, Richard, Insua is doing quite well tonight ... in so far as he hasn't given away any goals to the opposition and has got two crosses into the Lyon penalty area. Needless to say, he's now being patronised to within an inch of his life by ITV commentator Clive Tyldesley. There are someplayers on this Liverpool team who he'd praise if they successfully put one foot in front of the other without falling over.

45 min: Liverpool win a free kick, just inside the right touchline, way, way out. Voronin sends it into the penalty area, Mascherano falls over and Toulalon heads clear.

45+1 win: Liverpool win a corner which Voronin refuses to take, getting Benayoun to do so instead. Is the Ukrainian's confidence so shot to pieces that he's too much of a nervous wreck to take a corner now?

Half-time: Liverpool go into the break all square with Lyon, knowing they could be three up and should be at least one up. They should win comfortably if both teams keep playing like they have been for the past 30 minutes.

Half-time query: "If the teams haven't got adverts on their shirts how will we know what to buy?" asks David Barratt, not unreasonably.

Pompey Pete writes: "Carlsberg have missed a trick on the shirt sponsorship thang. If Heineken can get round the Gallic 'booze ban' with a board on the half-way line with a quite wanky 'Star Experience' line, why

don't Liverpool go for 'Probably ...' on their shirts? It would allow hacks all over the world to insert such classics on tomorrow's back pages as '... sacked in the morning!' or '... the best odds for the next managerial dismissal' etc and so on. Looking forward to your Football Weekly ... Extra vidcast tomorrow." Oh, that. At 7.30pm GMT? Tomorrow? I'm not looking forward to it one bit. Probably ... the worst idea in the history of Guardian multimedia innovations.

Ed Whatley is here to take exception with Richard in Bangkok's match analysis in the 36th minute. "Carragher can't tackle?" he harrumphs. "So probably the last 10 years have been filled with last ditch cake-baking sessions, well timed bon mots or forceful diplomatic interventions. Not tackles. The 400 odd appearances have all been at centre-forward, right? Christ." That's your fabled Scouse sense of humour right there, folks. You leave the words "any more" off the end of an email and those pedantic Liverpool fans swarm all over you like locusts.

Second-half: An indignant Pompey Pete has written to point out that his name is actually Pompey Paul. Pete/Paul/To-may-to/To-ma-to. While I'd usually bow to a correspondent's superior knowledge in such matters, I prefer Pompey Pete, so that's what it is from now on. I'm sure you've been called worse and it's not as if you don't have more important things to be worrying about.

46 min: Lyon are harshly denied a free-kick right on the edge of the Liverpool penalty area when Lisandro is fouled by Insua. Some referees would have given a penalty for that.

47 min: Lyon attack down the right flank, Cissohko crosses from the touchline and Ederson sends a volley high over the bar.

48 min: "Wales' rugby team is sponsored by Brains, a Cardiff brewery. When they play in France, they replace 'Brains' with 'Brawn'," writes Nath Jones. And there was me thinking they replaced it with Katherine Jenkins.

50 min: "On RTE, Johhny Giles has asserted that anybody would be better on the pitch than Andriy Voronin," writes Dave Mc. "As someone who still gets cold sweats when contemplating Djimi Traore's contributions in a red shirt, I can't but disagree."

51 min: Liverpool attack down the left wing, with Benayoun feeding Insua on the overlap. The full-back sends another cross into the Lyon penalty area, but it's hacked clear.

52 min: ITV1's man on the touchline has been speaking to Lyon's manager, who thinks that his players have been overawed by the occasion and are concentrating too hard on playing for the draw that would see them through, rather than the win.

53 min: Lyon embark on a sortie into Liverpool's half, but Javier Mascherano dispossesses Kim Kallstrom. Throw-in for Lyon. In Florence, the locals have gone 2-1 up against Debrecen.

55 min: "As if I'm Scouse," writes Ed Whatley, harrumphing for the second time tonight. "I'm a Liverpool fan, I'm from somewhere indistinct in Surrey."

56 min: Lyon attack again. Lisandro plays the ball down the left touchline for Cissokho to chase. He sends in a cross which Bastos heads over from about 14 yards.

57 min: Reina rushes out of his area, beats the dreadlocked Gomis to a through-ball from the middle and heads clear. Fiorentina 3-1 Derbecen. Liverpool really need to win this game or they're as good as out of the competition and consigned to Europa League hell.

60 min: About five yards outside the Liverpool penalty area, Gomis is surrounded by four Liverpool players with no team-mates near him. There's nowhere for him to go, but Andriy Voronin decides to slide in and foul him anyway, moronically conceding a free-kick. Kim Kallstrom fires it high and wide.

61 min: Fiorentina 4-1 Debrecin. Liverpool really, really, really need to win this game or they're as good as out of the competition and consigned to Europa League hell.

62 min: Corner for Lyon. Kim Kallstrom sends it in from the left but his inswinger is too deep for Makoun and headed clear by Dirk Kuyt.

63 min: Reina needs to stay on his toes as a miss-hit Cisshoko cross morphs into a shot and needs to be dealt with at the near post.

64 min: Benayoun plays the ball down the left wing to Torres, but Makoun tackles and clears the danger. Torres has had a very quiet night so far, but he'll probably be left on as anyone with an ounce of sense would prefer a 20% fit version of him to an Andriy Voronin firing on all cylinders ... if such a thing has ever been witnessed.

66 min: Voronin plays the ball into Torres, standing with his back to goal in the Lyon penalty area. He turns and shoots, but his effort is blocked.

66 min: Liverpool substitution Babel for Voronin.

68 min: Relentless pressure from Liverpool. From a narrow angle to the left of goal, Lucas shoots from a narrow angle, bringing a fine save out of Lloris. The ball bounces loose and, standing with his back to goal, Kuyt doesn't get much purchase on his attempted overhead kick and it's cleared on the line.

70 min: Lyon win a free-kick about 35 yards out. Michel Bastos gets it over the wall and it dips. Reina saves. In Florence it's Fiorentina 4-2 Debrecen. If Fiorentina win and this is a draw, a win for Lyon in Italy would put Liverpool back in the competition. Playing as cautiously and tentatively as they are tonight - surrender monkeys, anyone? - I wouldn't bet on them to beat anybody.

73 min: Reina saves again after Lisandro pre-empted a disastrous Kyrgiakos back-pass and tried to intercept it. The goalkeeper saw the danger coming and was alert enough to get to the ball first. In Florence, it's Fiorentina 5-2 Debrecin.

76 min: Quarter of an hour to go and Liverpool really need to score. Lyon have used their last substitution, bringing their beer-drinking, disco-dancing former captain Sidney Gouvou on for Gomis.

77 min: Lyon go on the counter, the ball is played to Lisandro Lopez and he cuts in from the right past two Liverpool defenders. From the edge of the penalty area on the right hand side, he tries to curl a shot around Reina and inside the far post. Wide.

79 min: Daniel Agger pulls down Ederson about three yards outside the Liverpool penalty area, well right of centre. Ederson appeals to the referee to show Agger a second yellow card, but none is forthcoming. Kellstrom sends the free-kick high over the wall and the crossbar.

GOAL! Lyon 0-1 Liverpool (Babel 82) From the inside left channel, Ryan Babel cuts inside three defenders and unleashes an unstoppable right-footed drive from 30 yards that screams past Hugo Lloris into the top left-hand corner. That was an amazing goal.

84 min: Liverpool win a free-kick in the Lyon right-back position. Babel decides to take it and, with team-mates queuing up in the penalty area, he sends a wayward shank out for a throw-in at the opposite side of the field. The word "inconsistent" is bandied about when men talk of the Dutchman and he's demonstrated exactly why in the last few minutes.

86 min: Liverpool substitution: Fernando Torres off, David Ngog on.

88 min: Down in the left corner, Yossi Benayoun plays the ball into the Lyon penalty area, teeing up Ryan Babel. From a narrow-ish angle, he takes a wild slash, sending his shot wide.

GOAL! Lyon 1-1 Liverpool (Lisandro 89) The ball is swung across the edge of the Liverpool penalty area from the left. Bastos leaps and flicks the ball goalwards, Lisandro muscles Kyrigiakos off the ball and pokes the ball past Reina into the top left-hand corner. Liverpool are back in the mire.

90+1min: It's all over. The surrender monkeys have, eh, come back at the death and sucker-punched Liverpool for the second time in a row. They're through to the last 16 and while Liverpool aren't out of the competition, they're in all sorts of bother.

How the group stands. With two games to go, Lyon are through with 10 points, Fiorentina are next with nine and Liverpool are in third place with five points. Debrecin are in fourth place with no points. Liverpool need to beat Fiorentina and Debrecin, while hoping Lyon do a number on the Italians too. It's possible, but very unlikely.

In his post-match interview, Jamie Carragher says that he still believes his team can go through to the knockout stages, but says that it "won't be the end of the world" if they don't. "Liverpool will go on, don't you worry about that." He's dead right too. "Good Premier League football team isn't quite as good as it used to be," isn't quite the sensational headline some hysterical journalists and fans are making out.

With Manchester City drawing their last four in the Premier League and Aston Villa going down 2-1 to West Ham tonight, it's not as if the usual also-rans are queueing up to take their place in the Big Four pecking order, is it?

• This article was amended on 25 January 2009 to remove the name of a reader, at his request.