Marseille stun Liverpool

Liverpool suffered a shock home defeat against Marseille in a game that Liverpool looked particularly out of character at Anfield. The goal came late on courtesy of Mathieu Valbuena, who smashed the ball past Pepe Reina from 20 yards out.

It was a performance that was woefully below the required standard by Liverpool, and they didn't really threaten Marseille until the closing stages. Marseille looked well organised in defence and their persistence paid off.

It is not a good start to this years Champions League for Liverpool - with 1 point in 2 games after they drew with Porto in Portugal.

Marseille currently are 17th in French Ligue 1 - but certainly looked useful tonight - they passed the ball around crisply and cleanly and made Liverpool look like a pub team at times.

Niang forced Reina into action after the break with a strike from 20 yards and then with a well-struck low free-kick, and Liverpool looked uncomfortable after making 5 changes from their weekend Premiership game.

The Marseille said rewarded when, in the 77th minute, with the ball played to Valbuena after Mohamed Sissoko was caught in possession.

The French midfielder had time to pick his spot and curled wonderfully into the goal skimming the woodwork.

Rafa Benitez will need to make changes if his Liverpool side are to succeed with his squad rotation system.