In the Zone: Liverpool 2-5 Real Madrid performance analysis

Real Madrid achieved a piece of history this week by becoming the first visiting side to score five goals at Anfield in a European tie.

In this analysis brought to you by FedEx, the UEFA Technical Observers' panel assess the keys to Real's remarkable success in Tuesday's round of 16 first leg, including their calmness on the ball, their switches of play from one flank to the other, and their outstanding counterattacks to exploit the pace of Vinícius Júnior.

Goals

1-0: Darwin Núñez (4)

A feature of Liverpool's attacking game was the rotations down their right and this was evident in a fine opening goal as Jordan Henderson made an overlapping run which allowed Mohamed Salah time to play an incisive pass into the box which Núñez, making an excellent run behind Éder Militão, met with a brilliant back-heel finish.

2-0: Mohamed Salah (14)

Salah was the beneficiary of an error by last season's final hero, Thibaut Courtois. The goalkeeper controlled a high back-pass by Dani Carvajal on his chest but then erred with a freakish touch off his knee, the ball dropping to Salah who responded clinically with a composed first-time finish. With it, he became Liverpool's 42-goal leading scorer in European club competitions.

2-1: Vinícius Júnior (21)

The Brazilian put the first doubts in Liverpool minds with a magnificent arrowed strike into the far corner. This followed the kind of switch of play from right to left that was a key component of Madrid's game plan (see Features below) and then a trademark swift combination in a tight space between the scorer and Karim Benzema.

2-2: Vinícius Júnior (36)

"The second goal is slapstick, it shouldn't happen," lamented Jürgen Klopp of the equaliser which came when Vinícius Júnior closed down Alisson Becker and the goalkeeper hit a clearance straight at his compatriot. The ball struck his leg and looped back over Alisson and into the net. With it the 22-year-old became the youngest visiting player to score twice at Anfield in a major European fixture since Johan Cruyff for Ajax in 1966.

2-3: Éder Militão (47)

After Vinícius Júnior won a free-kick just outside the penalty box, five metres in from the byline, the exceptional Luka Modrić provided the accurate delivery and Militão the clever run to exploit Liverpool's zonal-marking system and head Real in front. For Klopp, it was the decisive moment: "You have to keep the momentum and there we lost it and didn't get it really back."

2-4: Karim Benzema (55)

More slick interplay around Liverpool's penalty area was the source. Madrid regained the ball high up the pitch and a quick combination led to a Benzema shot which took a heavy deflection off Joe Gomez and wrong-footed Alisson.

2-5: Karim Benzema (67)

A terrific counterattack began with Modrić intercepting the ball in his own half, then breaking upfield with age-defying energy, strength and composure as he held off Stefan Bajcetić – 19 years his junior – before releasing Vinícius Júnior on the left. Cue a cute pass inside to Benzema who was composure personified as he sidestepped Alisson and, unfussed by three recovering defenders, applied a ruthless, ice-cold finish to sum up Madrid's clinical touch on a night when five of their six shots on goal ended in the net.

Player of the Match: Vinícius Júnior

The Brazilian was Liverpool's nemesis in the final last May. On Tuesday he was the man who sparked the turnaround with his magnificent opening goal and who embodied the holders' counterattacking menace. UEFA's Technical Observers' panel said: "He had decisive attacking moments and a game-changing finish at 2-0 down. He scored two goals, had an assist and also won the foul for the free-kick goal scored by Éder Militão." A fabulous attacking outlet, he has either scored or set up a goal (or both) in all six games he has started in this season's competition.

Team formations

Liverpool

Klopp's men played a 4-3-3 both in and out of possession. With the ball, they had a narrow front three with the central Cody Gakpo (18) dropping deeper and, at times, Salah (11) playing wider and interchanging well with Henderson (14) and Trent Alexander-Arnold (66). When rotating, Alexander-Arnold would play inside and high with Henderson dropping back.

Out of possession, Liverpool's front three pressed aggressively, with the wide forwards coming a long way inside to press. The midfield players – particularly Henderson, integral in leading the early press – pushed high to press the opposition midfield and sometimes the Madrid defenders and even goalkeeper.

Real Madrid

Within a 4-3-3 framework, the Madrid midfield players would drop low in the build-up to connect the play, while Vinícius Júnior (20) often stayed high up the pitch as the focus of their counterattacks.

An injury to David Alaba (4) early in the game meant Nacho took his place, though the most significant change came early in the second half with Madrid leading 4-2 as Carlo Ancelotti switched the positions of Fede Valverde (15) and Modrić (10) to bring more defensive stability on his team's left side in the face of Liverpool's threat on that flank.

Features

In the eyes of the UEFA match observer, one of the keys to Madrid's victory was their composure as they stayed calm in the face of Liverpool's early intensity and produced long passages of controlled passing to draw the sting from the English side's fierce pressing.

Another key was the way they drew Liverpool over to one side of the field and then transferred the ball out of that pressure to attack the other side.

In the video above, this is clear in the first clip where you see eight Reds players looking to the right flank of a Madrid side who then open up the game with a right-to-left movement. Suddenly, on their left, Madrid have a trio of players – full-back, midfielder, winger – all in space with Benzema dropping to join them too. It leads to one of their characteristic combinations around the box and a dangerous ball to the far post.

The same happens in the second clip where you actually see Modrić, the master of decision-making, point to the left as he instructs Eduardo Camavinga to go crossfield. This leads to a 4v3 situation in their favour and concludes with Vinícius Júnior's first goal.

The match data underlines the point further. Where Liverpool, with their narrow front three, had an average team width in possession of 29.8m, Madrid's was 36.7m as they used more width when shuttling the ball crossfield. Indeed, with these balls across the pitch, the UEFA Champions League holders accumulated 62 long passes to Liverpool's 44.

A clear advantage of Los Blancos' longer spells of possession was it reduced the effectiveness of Liverpool's pressing game. With the hosts pushed back, their front three were forced deeper, and the higher up the field Madrid had possession, the further the Liverpool forwards had to travel when they won the ball.

As the game progressed, Madrid were increasingly successful in escaping the line of press and their counterattacking threat became pivotal. The third and fourth clips offer examples of this: first in showing the electric acceleration of Vinícius Júnior as Madrid break forward following a long throw out by Courtois, and then in displaying the same player's role in Madrid's fifth goal.

By that stage, Madrid were defending a little deeper and waiting to counter and Clip 4 shows Vinícius Júnior as the only player not back in his own half before the visitors spring forward. The UEFA observer noted that he had the liberty to remain upfield at times, staying slightly higher than Rodrygo. In the words of Klopp: "He has nothing else to do but wait there and just show his skills."

The third and final feature highlighted in the video is Madrid's success in escaping Liverpool's counterpressure. Clip 5 shows them play their way through their hosts' attempts to counterpress before getting numbers forward quickly into the opposition half.

There is more of the same in the final clip which culminates in the fourth Madrid goal and supports the observer's view that Liverpool's intensity had begun to wane. The sight of Carvajal winning a 40-60 against Bajcetić on the edge of Liverpool's box is a case in point.

An arresting statistic from Tuesday is the teams' expected goals as Liverpool had an xG of 1.97 to Madrid's 1.64 but were ruthlessly punished for their errors by clinical finishing. They slowly lost belief and, as mentioned, their intensity dropped and Madrid controlled possession with Modrić helping them control the tempo.

Not everything was negative about Liverpool's night. In the first half their high press was excellent and caused Madrid major problems, particularly in the first quarter. The data shows they ended the game with 15 recoveries in the attacking third compared with the solitary one recorded by a Madrid side who countered from deeper. Klopp's men also had four high turnovers to Madrid's none – one of them for the Salah goal.

As underlined by the match observer, Liverpool's triangle on their right side of Alexander-Arnold, Henderson and Salah was influential, with those players often rotating position and producing runs between the centre-back and full-back. Hence Ancelotti's decision to swap the positions of Valverde and Modrić, as mentioned above.

As the Italian said: "We were little bit weak on the left side. We tried to adjust the position and changed Valverde – we put him on the other side and definitely we were much better than the first half, and then we tried to play an open game."

Coaches' assessments

Jürgen Klopp, Liverpool manager: "The beginning was outstanding – it was us in a nutshell, causing them problems all over the place. I think the whole first half was good besides the goals. [With] the first goal we became slightly passive a bit higher up the pitch; already we were not chasing where you have to chase them. They are a team where if you get passive you get punished.

"They're outstandingly good in counterattacks. You need to play a game like we played first half for the full 95 minutes. You need to get the momentum back [but] with the 3-2 it was exactly the opposite. In the situation they scored, we have five or six players around and no challenge, that cannot happen.

"In the second half, we lost balls in strange moments. First half, we played in the half-spaces sensationally well; in the second the wrong players were in half-spaces and we played the ball there and they could win it."

Carlo Ancelotti, Real Madrid coach: "I had the memory of the Manchester City game, the semi-final when 2-0 down after ten minutes and we did not lose confidence. This team is used to fighting and never losing control, above all emotionally. Liverpool put in a lot of intensity, they press really strong and we had a lot of difficulty in the first half.

"The start was really difficult [but] we were able to stay focused on the game. Slowly we got back into the game, taking more control at the back and really dangerous up front – every time that we were able to move from the pressure of Liverpool we were dangerous."