UCL: Liverpool thrashed and facing trophyless season
Liverpool 2 - 5 Real Madrid
Liverpool are facing a season without a trophy after being thrashed by Real Madrid in the first leg of their last 16 tie.
Holders Real - who beat Liverpool in last season's final in Paris - became the first side to score five at Anfield in Europe despite going two goals down early on as Liverpool made a dream start to this last-16 tie.
UCL: Real Madrid win Champions League (eurosuperfootball.blogspot.com)
Darwin Nunez's brilliant flick put Liverpool ahead after only four minutes before Mohamed Salah cashed in on Real goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois' awful clearance to double their lead around 10 minutes later.
It then all started to go very wrong
Vinicius Junior's superb strike after 21 minutes pulled a goal back before Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson hacked a clearance straight at the Brazilian, holding his head in anguish as the ball looped behind him into the net in front of a shocked Kop End.
It was at this point when Will, a Liverpool fan from Bradford, text us: "I'm really worried now. We need to be careful Real Madrid don't take this away from us."
His fears were justified.
Those two goals changed the whole emphasis of the contest. The away side went ahead two minutes after the break when Eder Militao headed in Luka Modric's free-kick.
Real then rammed home their superiority as Karim Benzema's shot deflected in off Joe Gomez, the French striker then coolly adding a fifth after more brilliant work by the incredible Modric.
More reaction
After the match, Jürgen Klopp spoke to the media. You can watch and listen to this in the video below. Klopp's Reaction: Defensive errors, first-half performance & more | Liverpool vs Real Madrid - YouTube
Heracles Sakalis commented on that video: "It was a match that needed 110% focus and concentration because just a couple of careless mistakes and bad deflections can give away five goals. Mental stamina is where they outclassed us."
Andrew spoke positively about Liverpool's manager despite the heavy defeat. He added: "You have to respect Jurgen Klopp. The amount of determination and confidence that he has displayed is what a world-class manager looks like. Massive respect, especially with his calmness after losing 5-2."
Richard Jackson gave a good summary of the match and performance: "The surprise was the first 20mins, not the result. If you’ve watched us this season, we’ve given even average teams great chances. Facing Real Madrid was always going to be difficult. We played great in the first 20 and then failed to control the game. It hurts because we had the tie in our hands briefly."
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