Massimo, Massimo, wherefore art thou, Massimo? Sadly not at Ewood Park last night. Blackburn Rovers left the Uefa Cup in the first round, a minor tragedy scripted by their mediocrity in the away leg and in the early stages yesterday, when a Larissa goal made it 0-3 on aggregate and left Blackburn needing to score four.

While Massimo Maccarone’s last-gasp miracles memorably thrust Middlesbrough towards the 2006 Uefa Cup final from virtually hopeless positions, Blackburn were unable to find a hero of their own.

“Larissa deserved to go through, they were rock-solid,” Mark Hughes, the Blackburn manager, said. He searched for positives: fewer games, less travelling. But desolation outweighed consolation. “You can see all the negatives of European football, but when you go out of it you still have that empty feeling,” he said.

Blackburn went beyond the group stage last season and this was the year that they were supposed to build on their steady improvement under Hughes by challenging for a trophy. Yet they were undone by a side who are far from the best team in Greece.

Aware that a buzz would help if Blackburn were to scale the mountain, tickets were £10 and under. That brought an attendance above 20,000. The visiting support was larger than the Rovers contingent that travelled to Greece two weeks ago. That small troop witnessed one of the most abject performances of Hughes’s managerial reign, followed by a tame defeat by Portsmouth. What was a settled line-up is still feeling the aftershock.

Yesterday, Hughes went with the same XI who beat Sunderland last weekend. But after 18 minutes, Blackburn failed to deal with a cross and the ball broke to Cleyton. The skilful Brazilian calmly shot low into the far corner. David Dunn was felled by Stefanos Kotsolis, the goalkeeper, as both chased a loose ball in first-half injury time. Matt Derbyshire’s penalty was saved but he put in the rebound, only to retake it because Kotsolis had been off his line. Derbyshire found the corner with his second effort.

Six minutes after the break Stephen Warnock lashed in a fine goal. Blackburn hunted two more in a match that became an object lesson in how swiftly momentum can shift in cup football.

Ajax, the four-times European Cup winners, were knocked out of the Uefa Cup after they lost 3-2 at home to Dynamo Zagreb. That gave the Croatian side a 3-3 draw on aggregate and victory on the away goals rule.

Blackburn Rovers (4-2-3-1): B Friedel – B Emerton, C Samba, A Ooijer, S Warnock – A Mokoena (sub: M G Pedersen, 63min), Tugay Kerimoglu – M Derbyshire (sub: B McCarthy, 69), D Dunn (sub: R Savage, 79), D Bentley – R Santa Cruz. Substitutes not used: J Brown, Z Khizanishvili, M Rigters, A Kane. Booked: Tugay, Samba, Warnock.

Larissa (4-1-4-1): S Kotsolis – G Galitsios, N Dabizas, M Foerster, P Katsiaros – I Kyriakidis – Cleyton, M Sarmiento, G Fotakis, N Alexandrou (sub: I Kotsios, 57) – I Bakayoko (G Dimitris, 90). Substitutes not used: F Kipouris, F Parra, C Kalantzis, T Venetis, P Bachramis. Booked: Sarmiento, Kotsolis, Fotakis. Referee: C Circhetta (Switzerland).