The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Reds a Real lesson
amounted to being fouled by Henderson after just nine seconds and seeing a low shot comfortably claimed by Simon Mignolet, was unsurprisingly the instigator.
Laying the ball off to James Rodriguez, he darted forward to get on the end of a deliciously weighted return ball and hit a sublime half-volley over the goalkeeper with centre-backs Dejan Lovren and Martin Skrtel seemingly mesmerised.
It was Ronaldo’s 70th goal in this competition, his 19th club goal in 13 appearances this season and 272nd in 259 games for Real.
If Liverpool were stunned by that, they should have seen the second and third goals coming as they resulted from familiar flaws.
On the half-hour, Toni Kroos lifted a cross to the far post where Glen Johnson left Benzema unchallenged to loop a header across goal and in at the far post.
A Kroos corner 11 minutes later floated over the head of Mario Balotelli and hit Pepe on the chest, with the Portugal defender reacting quickest to nick the ball past Mignolet for Benzema to tap home.
Brendan Rodgers meanwhile resisted the chance to drop misfiring striker Mario Balotelli. But the Italy striker got a first shake of the head from his manager within two minutes — and was replaced at half-time by Adam Lallana, appearing to swap shirts with Pepe as he headed down the tunnel.
In the time he was on the pitch he produced one surging run past left-back Marcelo, only to cross high over the head of Sterling.
Carlo Ancelotti’s team were 3-0 up at the break, but this was no Istanbul — where the Italian manager’s AC Milan side conceded the second half and lost on penalties as Liverpool won a fifth European Cup crown in 2005.
Real, 10-time winners of the trophy, played containment and counter-attack with very little concern with Saturday’s Clasico on their minds. And, even when Liverpool did manufacture an opening, substitutes Lazar Markovic and Emre Can andAllen contrived to mess it up between them.
The only positive on the night was Basel losing 1-0 to Ludogorets, leaving the secondplaced Swiss and the Bulgarians on three points alongside Liverpool.