UCL REVIEW: Benzema, Ronaldo inflict rout on Reds

Former Manchester United star Cristiano Ronaldo scored his first ever goal at Anfield to help Real Madrid cruise to a 3-0 win over Liverpool in their UEFA Champions League (UCL) clash.

Karim Benzema struck twice to put the game beyond doubt in the opening 45 minutes before Mario Balotelli was substituted following a shirt-swap with Pepe as the players headed towards the tunnel.

Ronaldo latched on to a fantastic pass from James Rodriguez to volley past Simon Mignolet, silencing the Kop faithful just after 23 minutes.

Benzema then doubled his side’s advantage with a looping header on the half-hour mark before sealing Liverpool’s fate with a close-range effort on 41 minutes.

The result sees Liverpool occupy joint-second in their group with both Ludogorets and Basel with just three points taken from three games.

Late strikes from Kieran Gibbs and Lukas Podolski earned Arsenal an unlikely three points to keep their qualification hopes alive.

The Gunners looked to be heading for a second successive Champions League defeat until two goals in as many minutes earned them all three points.

Andy Najar put Anderlecht ahead with just 20 minutes of the match remaining after Dennis Praet nipped in behind the badly-positioned Per Mertesacker.

The game looked to be heading for a miserable 1-0 defeat for Arsenal, but Gibbs and Podolski had other ideas.

Calum Chambers’cross from the right met the unlikeliest of candidates in Gibbs, who swept the ball home.

Just a minute later, Podolski capitalised on some shocking defending from Anderlecht to smash the ball home from six yards.

Borussia Dortmund eased past Galatasaray to continue their 100 per cent record in this season’s Champions League group stages.

A brace from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, followed by goals from Marco Reus and Adrian Ramos, secured the points and took Dortmund three points clear of Arsenal in Group D.

FULL RESULTS

Group A

Atletico Madrid 5-0 Malmo

Olympiakos 1-0 Juventus

Group B

Liverpool 0-3 Real Madrid

Ludogorets Razgrad 1-0 Basel

Group C

Bayer Leverkusen 2 – 0  Zenit St. Petersburg

Monaco 0-0 Benfica

Group D

Anderlecht 1-2  Arsenal

Galatasaray 0-4 Borussia Dortmund