Carlo Ancelotti’s Real Madrid ran amok on Wednesday evening at Anfield by beating Liverpool 3 goals to nil.
Goals came courtesy of Cristiano Ronaldo (1) and Karim Benzema (2) – all in the first half of play.Real Madrid showed no respect whatsoever at Anfield and even the legendary phrase “This is Anfield” in the tunnel down to the dressing rooms did nothing to stop the rout at the Red’s home ground. You’ll never walk alone also had no impact on the European Champions as they practically sealed this tie before Liverpool set foot on the pitch at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium.
With Gareth Bale out injured Ancelotti used a 4-4-2 formation that didn’t fail. CR7 and Benzema were up front, behind them were Isco, Kroos, Modric and James. The back four were made up of
Marcelo, Varane, Pepe and Arbeloa with Casillas in goal.
CR7 opened up the scoring followed by a brace from Karim Benzema. Liverpool failed to have any impact on the game during the whole of the 90 minutes and Real Madrid now sit pretty at the top of group B and look likely to make it to the last 16.
Liverpool tried to pull themselves together in the second half but Real quickly gained control of the match once again and CR7 should have made it 4 nil but he failed in a one on one with keeper Simon Mingolet.
With the match put to bed, Ancelotti decided to rest his main asset and took Ronaldo off in the 75th minute. The Italian said after the match that CR7 had “sprinted al lot” and he decided to rest him before Saturday’s Clasico match against Barça.
Liverpool striker Mario Balotelli was duly blasted for swapping shirts with Pepe at half-time when his team was down by 3 goals. Brendan Rodgers was fuming and was surprised at Balotelli’s actions. Rodgers said after the match: “It is not something I stand for and I will deal with Balotelli.”
Former Liverpool captain Phil Thompson also had words to say: “I think it’s disgraceful. I think it’s disrespectful to both players. If you’re swapping them, what’s the other guy thinking about? You’re giving away your shirt at half time, what is in his mind?”
Watch the highlights of Liverpool vs Real Madrid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccJBDjLJKhE
