If Liverpool are not out of the European Cup for this season it will require an outsize Anfield miracle next Wednesday when the second leg of the first round tie is played. Even the fog - which shrouded half the pitch for most of the game and all of it for long periods after threatening to cause the abandonment of the game in the Olympic Stadium last night – failed to cloak the humiliation of the English Champions. For humiliation it was, brought about by the most inept defensive display Liverpool have given for years. To confront a side of the calibre of Ajax with such token resistance was simply asking for trouble and Liverpool collected it. It was the first time any European side had scored more than three goals against the Merseysiders who had conceded only ten in twelve previous matches. The fog grew worse as the second half progressed and while it became almost impossible to follow play clearly, to have abandoned it would have been absurd in the circumstances. For the referee any such decision would have been akin to taking his life in his hands. I am sure Liverpool would never have wished to escape from their exposed shortcomings by any belated rescue intervention by the weather. The Ajax forwards did not merely live up to their reputation for slick movement and superb combination, they exceeded it. Swart, Cruyff and Nuninga were a tremendous trio and tore Liverpool to shreds. Not only did they make their approaches to goal efficiently, but their finishing could not have been improved. Five chances carved out meant five goals. More could not be asked of any side than that. Liverpool's defence never got to grips and exposed Lawrence to impossible conditions until the game had swung far beyond any hope of recovery.

Liverpool, realising four goals down was too much to pull back even at Anfield, converted the second half into an almost all-out continuous attacking session and two or three times came close to scoring. It was a calculated risk Liverpool were taking and no-one was at all surprised when, in one of their breakaways, Groot added a fifth for Ajax. It was impossible to see what happened, but the crowd knew and it was confirmation enough for us to see Liverpool kicking off again. The Ajax triumph was hailed almost as a national victory and the Kop's singing was never more vociferous than the hymns of praise that swept round the ground for these Ajax heroes. A Dutchman said to me “I saw Liverpool play against Leeds United a fortnight ago. This cannot be the same team. What have you done with them?” All that had happened was that Graham had been substituted for the injured Milne, otherwise the team was the same in personnel, at least. It would have made no difference who Milne's deputy had been. Liverpool's honour lay in ruins and try as they would they could not piece together any recognisable remnants of their tattered reputation. In the last minute Hunt and Lawler hurled themselves as the ball crossed by Callaghan. I think it was the full-back who scored with the last kick of the match. Four goals to cancel out must obviously be better than five, but what a mountainous, thankless and seemingly cruelly impossible position now faces a deflated Liverpool. Ajax's hostile intent was soon apparent for, in three minutes, they were a goal ahead when de Wolff - a last minute deputy for the injured Keizer and playing In his first big game - headed Ajax into the lead.

From a throw-in Cruyff headed high to the air. Out came Lawrence before deciding he could not reach the ball. Back it went, but de Wolff outjumped Lawler by at least a foot to head unhindered into goal. Hunt's swerving attempt at retaliation found the goalkeeper prepared and sheer disaster followed in 17 minutes when Cruyff claimed a second goal. Swart, a brilliant raider and pinpointing centres with the accuracy of a military marksman, presented a defensive problem to Liverpool which was never resolved. Nuninga's shot rebounded from Lawrence straight to Cruyff, who crashed the ball into goal. After 33 minutes manager Bill Shankly followed Bob Paisley onto the field as he went to attend to a Liverpool player; but was promptly ordered to the touchline. Suurbier was carried off with a damaged ankle and, although back again within minutes, had a limp. The foul count was mounting against Liverpool and the crowd left nobody in doubt their disapproval of some strong tackling. Smith was penalised for bringing down Cruyff less than two yards outside the penalty area and it produced goal number three in 39 minutes. A free kick by Soetekouw failed to clear the massed defence; but twice Liverpool made abortive efforts to get the ball away. Finally it rebounded to Nuninga who placed his shot beautifully past Lawrence. This was a hammering with a vengeance for Liverpool and, mistaking the referee’s signal, Swart and Suurbier left the field under the impression that it was half time. The game had to be held up for their recall. Liverpool's trials were not over for two minutes before half-time Swart hit a centre strongly across goal. It brushed Cruyff in passing and there was Nuninga ready and willing to give Ajax the distinction of becoming top scorers over Liverpool in European competition.

Besides themselves with joy, the home crowd could hardly believe that these events were really happening for Liverpool's reputation before the match had been sky high and one gathered the impression that Ajax considered themselves honoured merely to be in competition with them. Four goals down at half-time was little short of a nightmare experience for Liverpool. It was hard to believe that here was the same defence which had denied four English League opponents in the last five games of so much as a single goal. They buckled, bent and disintegrated before this talented onslaught. Liverpool hardly appeared to know what was hitting them and, until the second half, could do little or nothing to ease the pain and indignity of it all. As someone in the crowd remarked: "It was not the airport they should have closed for fog. It was the Olympic Stadium." Smith fought to start a Liverpool rally early in the second half with a drive from twenty-five yards, but even in the shocking visibility Bals saw the ball in time and clutched it as he dived. Liverpool threw all they had into attempting to pull back a goal or two, but Ajax fell back to a man and the result was a crowded penalty area and a prolonged period of frustration for Liverpool. Yeats almost scored with a header in 61 minutes. Bals hooking the ball from under the bar. It seemed in the fog that Smith was booked for a foul on Nuninga. Then came the crunching fifth Ajax goal and Liverpool's last minute retaliation.

Liverpool have achieved some outstanding feats in European competition in the last three seasons, but if they are to qualify for round two of the European Cup this will undoubtedly represent their greatest triumph of all. To lose 5-1 against Ajax of Amsterdam last night was a reverse that would have shocked everyone who has followed Liverpool’s fortunes over the last few years. Nobody considered them immune to defeat, but how many thought they could be hammered so unmercifully? Had they not scored through Lawler with the last kick of the match the margin would surely have defied the most optimistic to make out any case for them next week. Now four goals down, manager Bill Shankly is convinced that all is not lost and that Liverpool can at least square accounts. All Liverpudlians will hope he is right, but this is no ordinary side they are facing. Ajax have forwards quick, able and lethal and Liverpool, by now, should have developed sufficient respect for them to realise that any all-out attacking policy runs the risk of laying them open to devastating retaliation. Swart, Cruyff and Nuninga are a trio who would gladden the heart of almost any English club manager and the fact that Ajax collected five goals, which is one above their club average for the season, from as many chances suggests finishing power of tremendous efficiency. Their last goal, scored I am told by Groot, was apparently of the most fortunate variety for it was from a free kick which cannoned off St John's shoulder to be deflected wide of Lawrence. Frankly I saw nothing at all of this score and numerous other incidents and I am indebted to the players for clarification. Liverpool complained that Ajax would never have succeeded in helping themselves to the biggest score ever recorded against the English champions in European competitions if the conditions had been anything approaching normal. All day the playing of the match was in doubt and soon after 4 o'clock the odds against it taking place were considerable as the fog thickened to threaten a complete blackout. Then came the rain and the light became more tolerable. When the game began conditions were just about playable and before deterioration set in Liverpool were four goals down. Any thought of postponement from that stage was out of the question. Quite frankly the Press men high up in the stand could not have seen half the match and from what the players say even they did not see it all. It is unfortunate a match of this importance should have to be decided against such a background.

The obvious reply is that the conditions were the same for both sides, but for all that I find it hard to imagine Liverpool so readily conceding at least the first four goals in more normal circumstances. My first reactions were to criticise most severely the apparent failings of the defence, for Lawrence was left completely unsupported for almost all their scores. But one cannot ignore their explanation that their reactions were delayed because vision was impaired. Certainly that story tallies with events for they seemed so much out of touch in vital moments that a watertight excuse is needed to justify the failure. They maintain too that the ball was out of play before being crossed for the third goal and because this event was out of my vision, I cannot comment on that. It was a different story in the second half with Liverpool monopolising the attack and apparently having three scoring efforts kicked off the goal-line. I did see a Yeats’s header scooped from under the bar by goalkeeper Bals, but the other incidents were just casualties of the fog. Tommy Lawrence says that when de Wolff, last-minute deputy for International winger Kaiser and playing in his first senior game, headed the opening goal in three minutes the goalkeeper simply did not see the brown coloured ball. It was after this that the referee ordered the substitution of a white ball. Cruyff put Liverpool two goals down in 18 minutes when Nuninga's shot rebounded from Lawrence and the third came from Nuninga after a direct free-kick had rebounded conveniently to him. Nuninga also claimed the fourth two minutes before half-time when a hard cross from Swart was taken out of Lawrence's reach by the ball cannoning off Cruyff. Seldom have I seen any team four goals up withdraw its side into defensive positions as Ajax did as Liverpool sought to save the game by an all-out offensive. The Dutch are undoubtedly a smart side. They switch from defence to attack like an uncoiling spring and it was from just such a raid that the Groot goal resulted via St John in 77 minutes. Whether Lawler's last kick goal for Liverpool, his first incidentally in European Cup football, will be the means of his team saving the tie, we shall have to wait and see. Ajax, however, promise they will not come to Anfield defensively inclined, believing themselves capable of scoring even more goals. In the Liverpool camp the view is held that the return of Gordon Milne will be the first step to a sensational reversal of a terrific hiding. One way or another it could be quite a night at Anfield next Wednesday. Liverpool's Tom Smith was booked in the first half.

In the fog-enshrouded Olympic Stadium here tonight Liverpool almost certainly bowed out of the European Cup. They were trashed by five goals to one by Ajax, a team who considered it an honour merely to be playing against Liverpool whose reputation in European competition here is so high. Ajax have never had a prouder night nor Liverpool a more disastrous one. Yet they fell by their own inadequacy. I have never seen Liverpool's defence so wide open to the attacks of a sharp, slick, and powerful forward line. In their 12 previous matches in the European Cup Liverpool had conceded only ten goals. Tonight all was ruined in this ghostly ballet led by the brilliant pas de deux of Swart and the graceful Nuninga. Somewhere in this great concrete bowl were 65,000 Ajax supporters. But if one could not see them, they certainly made themselves heard, for there was drama early to spur them on and great victory to keep them singing. Many matches in which conditions were less bad than this would, I am sure, have been abandoned. But Mr. Sbardella, the Italian referee, considered that, although the spectators could not see, the players could. It was a farcical situation for the crowd. Only those nearest the points of play could discern the players as conditions got worst. In this thirteenth European Cup match of theirs, Liverpool began disastrously. In fact, in the first half Ajax had four real chances and scored from all of them. The scoring began in the third minute. There was no denying that the power of these Dutch international forwards was as good as any Liverpool have met. Swart, particularly, gliding past Stevenson deep on the wing, made a great many of the moves to which Liverpool were so suspect. But, even so, it was De Wolff on the other wing, brought in as a replacement for Keizer and playing his first match for the Ajax senior side, who scored the first goal.

The goal stemmed primarily from a throw-in given away by Yeats opposite the penalty area. The ball was swept by Groot high into the Liverpool goalmouth; and there was De Wolff going up high above Lawler to head the ball down past Lawrence. The second goal from the second chance came in the seventeenth minute. Swart made a long tantalising run and pushed the ball into the middle where Nuninga's shot bounced out of Lawrence's arms straight to Cruyff, who sent it back into the goal. In the gloom, one could see Mr. Shankly taking the opportunity, while Suurbier was injured, to try to walk on to the pitch to have words with his players. But he was spotted and asked to return. Liverpool, at that point, certainly needed some guidance. One could just discern that Liverpool in the first half were led by St John's probing together with that of Strong and Callaghan. But they were never able to penetrate a competent defence. Later in the half, Liverpool attacked with determination and some strength if, at times, the strength was rather misplaced, for Smith appeared to have his name taken for a foul on Nuninga. But after 39 minutes came another blow for Liverpool - another chance, another goal. Smith fouled Cruyff on the edge of the penalty area. Soetekouw's shot was charge down, so too was another, and eventually the ball came to Nuninga who shot past a crowd of players. Again Nuninga struck. In the forty-third minute, Swart sent the ball across the face of the Liverpool goal. It touched Cruyff and was nudged into the goal by Nuninga. Finally, 13 minutes from the end, the visibility from the press box was too bad for Groot to be seen scoring the fifth Ajax goal. In the last seconds, there was just a modicum of reward for Liverpool, as Lawler hooked a corner kick into Ajax's goal.

Liverpool are surely out of the European Cup, clinging to survival by a thread so slender it seems certain to snap in the second leg of this first round tie at Anfield next week. On a nightmare of a night here, shrouded in fog, their famous defence was ripped into tattered shreds by an attack rightly rated as the best Holland has ever produced. The second half was almost completely blotted out, and inevitably there will be arguments that referee Antonio Sbardella, of Italy, should have abandoned it. If he had, there would have been the real risk of a riot by the 64,000 crowd - because at the time visibility was at its worst, Ajax were five goals up.

Liverpool pulled their solitary consolation goal back with almost the last kick of the game when right-back Chris Lawler hurled himself at a cross from winger Ian Callaghan. Liverpool's worst ever display in Europe was begun by a 21-year-old making his debut in first team football - left winger de Wolff. He scored after only three minutes. Other scorers for Ajax, Cruyff (17 mins.), Nuninga (38 mins, 42 mins), and Groot (77 mins).