Aldo: Don't write Liverpool FC off

Never say never – while many people will have written Liverpool's Champions League hopes off, I have no intentions of doing the same, writes John Aldridge in the Liverpool Echo.

True, the situation has been muddied by the fact we are no longer in control of our destiny and if Lyon and Fiorentina want to carve things up between them, there is nothing the Reds will be able to do about it.
 
If Lyon want to go down that route, though, it may well come back to haunt them in the last 16; if they want to avoid a really difficult draw in the knockout stages, it would be in their own interests to go for a win in Florence. 
 
And if they do happen to beat Fiorentina, I would back us to do all that is required to get out of this situation - as Pepe Reina said after the game in France, miracles and Liverpool go hand-in-hand.
 
But if we do not get through, that does not mean we should be looking to change the manager. Far from it. Rafa Benitez has not suddenly become a flop overnight and the last thing we need is another element of uncertainty.
 
It's hard enough at the minute, given the state of the club with the debt and the problems with the owners, but in Rafa we have a top class manager, who has engineered some fantastic triumphs for us since he has been here.
 
What we need now is a win against Birmingham to ease some of the pressure, restore a bit of confidence and give us all a positive to go into the international break after so many recent setbacks.
 
While it was terrible to draw a game we should have won in Lyon, there was enough quality in the performance to suggest things are about to turn and once we get all our big players back, you will really see a difference.
 
Birmingham will do what every other team does at Anfield on Monday night and make themselves difficult to break down.
 
Having an extra 48 hours to prepare for the match, though, might just work in our favour. If Rafa Benitez can get a couple of senior players back, our chances of grinding out a win will improve. It doesn't matter how we do it - three points are all that matter.  

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