Liverpool blasts Real Madrid 4-0

Liverpool left no doubt on Tuesday as they blasted a shellshocked Real Madrid squad 4-0 in England.  The loss sees Real Madrid crash out of the Champions League once again early in the knockout, while Liverpool looks to be a serious contender once again.

It was all Liverpool right from the start and if not for Real Madrid keeper Iker Cassilas it could have been 4 or 5 in the first twenty minutes of play as Liverpool just swarmed the Spaniards.  Fernando Torres got Liverpool on the board in the 16th minute as he tapped in a square ball from Dirk Kuyt.  Only minutes later a questionable handball on Heinze led to a penalty award and Steven Gerrard calmly fired it home for the 2-0 advantage.

Everyone was poined for a Real rally in the 2nd half, but instead it took Liverpool less than two minutes to end the match as Steven Gerrard volleyed home a cross from Ryan Babel.  The final insult was when Andrea Dossena scored his first goal for Liverpool in the 88th minute to complete the 4-0 rout.

In other action, Bayern Munich finished their matchup with Sporting Lisbon with a 7-1 home rout behind goals from 6 different players.   The rout completed a 12-1 aggregate smashing of the Portugal squad.   Villareal survived their trip to Greece and got a 70th minute goal from Joseba Llorente to eliminate Panathinaikos 3-2 on aggregate.