Real Madrid v Liverpool: Champions League last 16, second leg

Key events

Show key events only

Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature

Sid Lowe was in Madrid tonight to watch the hosts and champions serenely progress to the quarter-finals. His report is in, and here it is. Thanks for reading this one. Nighty night!

Jurgen Klopp, bitterly disappointed yet magnanimous, speaks to BT Sport. “Being 5-2 down is obviously not a great result … if you wanted to go through, you really needed to put in a special performance, and that wasn’t a special performance tonight … it was an open game but Madrid had the better chances … Ali had to make two sensational saves, wow! … the goal was a scrappy one but that was obviously not decisive any more … the right team went through … that’s what we have to admit … Madrid controlled the game … it’s not what we wanted but it’s what we got, and now we have to carry on … in three halves of two games, they were the better team … but to be honest, if we draw at home and play here like we did tonight, we go out as well … you cannot come here and hope that you get something … we prepared for a special performance but were not able to put it on the pitch … it was obvious, nobody thinks ‘how did Liverpool go out?!’ and that’s probably the best sign that the right team went through.”

Here are the teams in Friday’s draw for the quarter-finals of the Champions League … helpfully arranged in order from most to least likely overall winners, as the bookies currently see it!

Updated at 18.10 EDT

A grim look on Jurgen Klopp’s face as he congratulates Carlo Ancelotti and his players. Real Madrid, who won their 14th title at Liverpool’s expense last season, were much the better side in this tie against the same opponents over both legs. Alisson prevented tonight’s scoreline being nearly as ugly for Liverpool as it was in the first match at Anfield. The Liverpool players look drained, Alexander-Arnold staring exactly one thousand yards into the distance. As Gerry Marsden continues to croon, it’s impossible to shake the feeling of a real fin de siècle vibe tonight. The end of the road for one of the great Liverpool teams.

The Liverpool players applaud their supporters who made the trip over to Madrid. Photograph: Juan Medina/Reuters

Updated at 18.10 EDT

FULL TIME: Real Madrid 1-0 Liverpool (agg: 6-2)

The champions are through to the quarters! Liverpool flattered by the scoreline, with Alisson their star man. A nice touch as Real play You’ll Never Walk Alone over the PA system.

Liverpool manager Jügen Klopp consoles his dejected players Andrew Robertson (left) and Fabinho. Photograph: Juan Medina/Reuters

Updated at 18.06 EDT

90 min +4: Tsimikas is booked for swinging a lazy arm in Ceballos’ face. A lively cameo!

90 min +3: The referee is sent across to the monitor … but for once sticks with his original decision! No penalty. Seems fair enough: even though his arm was well away from his body, it had pinged up at speed from his hip, and he was looking the other way. The Bernabeu isn’t happy, not that it matters a jot.

90 min +1: Gakpo and Robertson are replaced by Tsimikas and Carvalho. Tsimikas immediately finds himself in the centre of the action, Rodrygo cutting back from the right wing for Vazquez, who shoots straight at the Liverpool defender. Real want a penalty, even though the ball pinged off Tsimikas’s thigh and up onto his arm. VAR gets involved!

90 min: Robertson attempts to release Gakpo into the Real box down the left. The pass is heavy, the run half-hearted. There will be two added minutes.

88 min: Oxlade-Chamberlain, under no pressure in the centre circle, passes the ball out of play, then offers an apologetic hand to his manager. Klopp, now resigned to defeat and becalmed, nods back sadly.

86 min: Vazquez comes on for Carvajal.

85 min: Some good work by Oxlade-Chamberlain as he cuts in from the left. The ball’s worked, via Salah, to Alexander-Arnold, just inside the box on the right. Alexander-Arnold has the chance to shoot from a tight angle, send in a cross certainly, but takes a heavy touch and settles for a corner … which he then overhits. Goal kick.

84 min: Vinicius and Kroos are replaced by Asensio and Tchouameni.

83 min: Nacho steps across Elliott and is slightly lucky to escape a booking, for persistently looking for a row, if nothing else. A couple of minutes earlier, he’d needlessly shoved a smiling Salah, who had no interest whatsoever in throwing hands.

83 min: A little bit of space for Elliott, 25 yards out. He opens his body and aims a curler towards the top left, but there’s not enough whip on the ball and Courtois does what Courtois does.

82 min: Benzema departs as well, with Rodrygo coming on in his stead.

81 min: Modric is replaced by Ceballos. What an ovation he receives, from all four corners of the Bernabeu.

80 min: Benzema hurt his ankle while knocking that loose ball home. But goalscorer’s gonna score goals. He gets some attention, and with Barcelona coming up this weekend, surely he’ll be subbed in short order.

GOAL! Real Madrid 1-0 Liverpool (Benzema 78); agg 6-2

Real make the breakthrough, and it’s a bit of a farce. Benzema dinks down the middle. Vinicius, bustling in from the left, goes to swipe home, only to fall over. VAn Dijk hesitates. The prone Vinicius sticks out a leg to hook back to Benzema on the spot. Benzema slams home, and if this tie wasn’t long over already, it is now!

Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema slots the ball past Liverpool’s keeper Alisson. Photograph: Susana Vera/Reuters

Updated at 17.45 EDT

77 min: Real counter, Carvajal pulling a low shot well wide right from a promising position 20 yards out. Then Liverpool counter, Elliott evading a slide from Valverde and slipping Robertson into space near the byline. Robertson wins a corner that comes to nought. On the touchline, Klopp continues to self-combust. “Dear Owen Linderholm,” begins Richard Hirst. “I’m somewhat older than you, though not by too much, childhood also in Surrey, father had the village grocery shop, with lots of big old sweet jars, but clearly no PEZ dispensers. Maybe he was protecting me!”

76 min: Free kick for Liverpool out on the left. Robertson swings it in. Courtois catches it, then drops it, then smothers at Firmino’s feet.

75 min: Firmino and Salah combine cutely down the middle but the final wedged pass is too strong for Elliott, and Nacho comes across to cover.

73 min: Klopp receives a yellow card for haranguing the fourth official, presumably about the attention Nacho had just given Salah. Then he sends on Oxlade-Chamberlain for Milner.

72 min: Firmino rolls a pass down the right flank for Salah, who can’t power his way past Nacho. The Real defender high-fives with his team-mates after snuffing out the attack. The hosts have been superb this evening from front to back.

70 min: Salah dribbles into the Real area from the right … but again, there are no red men in the box to find. On the touchline, an empurpled Klopp screams at his troops to keep going. But there’s little left in the tank.

69 min: Suddenly Real turn up the gas. Vinicius steams in from the left, waltzes past Alexander-Arnold and Konate, and rolls across towards Benzema, who lashes over from just inside the box. That wasn’t far away at all.

67 min: Real stroke it around, hither and yon, probing patiently. Liverpool can’t get a sniff.

65 min: Space for Alexander-Arnold out on the right. He’s got time to line up a cross … but there’s nobody in the box to cross to. Liverpool keep on keeping on, but as far as inspiration goes, they’re running on fumes.

63 min: Modric flicks over Alexander-Arnold’s head down the left with insouciant ease. He loops a cross towards the far stick, where Valverde heads harmlessly over from six yards. He should have scored.

62 min: Firmino briefly threatens to dribble into space down the left but Carvajal gets in the road to nick the ball off his boot. Liverpool haven’t been found wanting for effort. Quality, though, is another issue.

60 min: Salah and Rudiger have been irritating each other with their mere presence, and the referee tells the pair to stop playing silly buggers. Klopp is understandably on Salah’s side in the row, and gives the fourth official some beneficial advice. Everyone calms down quickly enough.

59 min: Fabinho has the chance to send Salah into space down the right … but it’s another overhit pass. Liverpool’s collective radar has been wonky all evening. The pressure of playing the European champions on their own turf, I guess.

58 min: Firmino’s first act is to force a corner down the left. Valverde clears it. Unlike in last year’s final, Liverpool have done very little to test Courtois.

57 min: Liverpool make a double change. On come Firmino and Elliott, off go Jota and Nunez. “How old must Richard Hirst be?” wonders Owen Linderholm. “I’m 60 and in the wilderness of Surrey as a child, Pez were well known if not typical. I never cared for the flavors but the dispensers were cool. Wikipedia tells me they were marketed worldwide by the 50s.”

56 min: Real are knocking on the door again. Benzema rolls Vinicius into space on the right. Vinicius cuts back to Benzema, on the penalty spot. Benzema cocks his leg back to shoot, only for Alexander-Arnold to arrive from nowhere and block!

54 min: … and then suddenly Liverpool break, two on one. Salah just has to play in Nunez on the left, but seriously underhits his pass, allowing Militao to intercept. What a chance to give Liverpool hope!

53 min: Robertson’s mistake allows Valverde to race clear down the inside-right channel. He’s one on one with Alisson … but once again the keeper turns hero, starjumping and blocking. He may have made that mistake in the first leg, but without Alisson, Liverpool would be on the end of a hiding tonight as well.

Liverpool’s Alisson saves from Real Madrid’s Federico Valverde. Photograph: Susana Vera/Reuters

Updated at 17.18 EDT

52 min: Camavinga pings a pass down the left for Vinicius, who rolls across for Benzema, preparing to tap home. But Van Dijk comes across to intercept and clear, then the flag goes up for offside.

51 min: Nacho, who enjoys a good grimace, goes down spectacularly on the left touchline after being clipped by Jota. A lot of frowning and rolling around. Jota not too sure what’s going on. Nacho gets up soon enough and we play on.

49 min: Liverpool have clearly been told to up the press. How long they can keep it going, with Milner, Jota and Fabinho in the middle, is another matter altogether.

47 min: Nunez has the opportunity to send Jota into space down the middle, but pushes him wide left with his pass. Just a corner, that comes to nothing. But a fast start to the half for Liverpool, if nothing else. “Richard Hirst will be even more disappointed to learn that vintage PEZ dispensers can fetch hundreds at auction,” reports Joe Pearson.

Real Madrid get the second half underway. Didi Hamann comes on for No changes. They’re 45 minutes away from yet another quarter-final. Having been by far the better side in the first half, Vinicius in particular outstanding, it’ll take an outlandish performance by Liverpool to deny them.

Half-time entertainment. “What a sheltered life I have led,” begins Richard Hirst. “I had to look up PEZ (apparently the preferred format). I have to say I don’t think my life would have been improved if I had been aware of it, but then I’m an old curmudgeon – any reference to candy is automatically frowned upon.”

HALF TIME: Real Madrid 0-0 Liverpool (agg: 5-2)

Nunez, out on the left, switches play with a long pass towards Salah on the other flank. He feeds Alexander-Arnold, who wins a corner. Liverpool waste their opportunity to change the entire tenor of this tie, and the whistle goes for half-time. Real, by some distance the better side, are still sitting pretty; Liverpool still have their three-goal mountain to climb. They’re not quite out of it yet … but without Alisson, their 1% chance would be a big fat zero.

Updated at 16.55 EDT

45 min: Valverde prepares to race clear down the middle, but Liverpool back line has stepped up just in time, and the flag goes up for offside. There will be two minutes of first-half stoppage time.

43 min: Konate does extremely well to hold off an insistent Valverde and win a free kick. Real haven’t visited the Liverpool final third for a while. They’d been camped in it earlier. “Can Hamann come on at half time?” quips Matt Dony.

41 min: Fabinho tries to release Alexander-Arnold down the right with an ambitious diagonal pass, only to send the ball sailing high into the stand. Alexander-Arnold cocks a despairing head back, a Pez dispenser of frustration.

39 min: Salah accidentally steps on Nacho’s boot, whipping it off, so play stops awhile as the Real left-back pulls it back on and ties his laces. That’s the action, the breaking news.

37 min: One corner leads to another, then Jota chases a ball only to be clumsily skittled by Benzema in the box. But the flag had gone up for offside, so there goes Liverpool’s penalty dream.

36 min: Jota, on the edge of the Real D, rolls an inviting pass to Gakpo on his right. Gakpo meets it first time with a rising drive that Courtois parries round the post. Corner.

35 min: Vinicius is a constant threat, and the boss of Alexander-Arnold. He swans past him gracefully before gliding in from the left and sending a low shot into the arms of Alisson.

34 min: Wise decision, because nothing comes of the corner. Liverpool have done a decent job of slowing Real down in the last few minutes, though how long they can keep them at arm’s length is anyone’s guess.

33 min: Nunez drops a shoulder to make his way past Carvajal on the left. He steps inside and curls towards the bottom right. Courtois extends an arm to tip around the post for a corner. Not entirely sure that was heading in, but the Real keeper wasn’t going to take any chances.

31 min: Fabinho advances down the right and crosses long for Nunez, who from the edge of the box, attempts to steer an adventurous header across Courtois and towards the top right. Easy for the keeper to deal with.

29 min: Van Dijk, in a tight spot in the left-back position, sprays a glorious diagonal pass towards Salah, who is wrestled to the floor on the halfway line by Valverde. The resulting free kick ends up finding Robertson on the left. He whips a low cross along the corridor of uncertainty, but there’s nobody in red near enough to attack the ball.

27 min: Nunez drives down the right and finds Alexander-Arnold, who crosses for Gakpo. A header flashes harmlessly wide. Better from Liverpool, though the bar has not been set high.