It was not so long ago that “Allez les rouges” was the soundtrack to Liverpool’s domination of Europe. Last night it became a lament to former glories as it reverberated around the Stade Lille-Métropole.

Football’s French renaissance, given glorious exposure 24 hours earlier when Lyons dispensed with Real Madrid at the Bernabéu in the Champions League, was confirmed last night with a famous victory for Lille. Allez les rouges, indeed.

The oxymoronic-sounding Eden Hazard scored the goal that threatens Liverpool’s hopes of adding a silver lining to a season ridden by storm clouds. It also heightened the pressure on Rafael Benítez, who seems unable to extricate his team from their ever-deepening rut.

Learning from failures is Liverpool’s big weakness at present. Last time they were in France they succumbed to a late equalising goal from Lyons that all but eradicated their Champions League ambitions. This time a late winning goal from Lille left their Europa League hopes in the balance.

The goal was afforded instant legendary status in the northern French city, owing more to the identity of the opponents it vanquished than its artistic merit.

Hazard’s free kick from a deep position was dangerous, but it was intended as a cross and only a failure by the Liverpool defence to deal adequately with it allowed the ball to sail into the back of Pepe Reina’s net.

The margins between success and failure, as ever during a season in which Liverpool seem to dice with death from one game to the next, were slim. Had the visiting team taken one of a number of chances that came their way — the best ones falling to Ryan Babel and Fernando Torres, only for both to be denied by Mickaël Landreau, the Lille goalkeeper — they may have gone on to win or, at the least, snared an away goal that would have turned the dynamics of the round-of-16 tie in their favour.

Equally, however, had a late shot by Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang found the back of the net rather than the outside of a post and had Reina not been alert and adroit enough to deny Pierre-Alain Frau and Yohan Cabaye, Liverpool could easily have been left with a greater deficit to overcome in Thursday’s second leg at Anfield.

Such has been Liverpool’s fall from grace this season — last night’s was their fifteenth defeat in all competitions — that the much-derided Europa League has come to offer them a salvation of sorts. It does, after all, fit in with another Liverpool adage that the club exist to win trophies and, having not lived up to this exacting philosophy since 2006, the Anfield side can ill afford to cock a snook at silverware of any kind, regardless of how devalued or low on their priorities the competition may be.

Whether they like it or not, failure in the Champions League makes their involvement in the Europa League an accurate gauge of their standing in European football. They are in among the also-rans and their devalued status is something that they are not at ease with.

Given the malign state of the club, however, it may be something that they will have to get used to.

It was after Liverpool’s exit from the Champions League at the group stage in November that Christian Purslow, the club’s managing director, insisted that such an early departure might not prove as financially damaging as many had feared.

“If we have three home games in the Europa League, we are equivalent to what we budget for in the Champions League,” Purslow said at the Ferenc Puskas Stadium in Budapest that night.

Liverpool have played one of those matches and they are guaranteed one more when Lille play at Anfield next week, but unless Torres et al rediscover their sorely lacking ruthless edge, a third home game will prove beyond them.

Should that happen, last night could mark the last occasion that they hear “Allez les rouges” for some time.

Lille (4-1-2-2-1): M Landreau — F Beria, A Chedjou, A Rami, Emerson — R Mavuba — F Balmont, Y Cabaye (sub: S Dumont, 73min) — E Hazard, L Obraniak (sub: L Touré, 83) — P-A Frau (sub: P-E Aubameyang, 77). Substitutes not used: L Butelle, J Vandam, P Souare, A Souquet. Booked: Aubameyang, Touré.

Liverpool (4-2-3-1): J M Reina — G Johnson, J Carragher, D Agger, E Insúa — Lucas Leiva, J Mascherano — D Kuyt (sub: N El Zhar, 88), S Gerrard, R Babel (sub: A Riera, 73) — F Torres. Substitutes not used: D Cavalieri, S Kyrgiakos, M Kelly, A Aquilani, D Ngog. Booked: Insúa, Torres.

Referee: C B Larsen (Denmark).