Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp slammed his team’s defence after gaving up a two-goal advantage to lose 5-2 against Real Madrid in Tuesday’s UEFA Champions League R16 first leg encounter at Anfield Stadium.

The Reds were prone to individual errors and were punished dearly by the visitors who capitalised on the blunders.

With two early goals from Darwin Nunez and Mohamed Salah, the hosts were left to rue their errors after keeper Alisson Backer fired his pass directly into Vinicius Junior for Madrid’s second, while centre-back Joe Gomez had a hand in at least four of the goals.

Speaking after the match, Klopp said: “I really think everything was pretty obvious tonight; I think we gave all five goals away and that means we could have done better there, but they were all obviously different.

“The start in the game, in our situation where we are, it is really important that we see positive steps – and I think the first half was, besides the two goals we conceded, the best we’ve played for probably the whole season.”

The gaffer added: “In the second half, the game was the game Real Madrid wanted to play. Both of the other goals they scored, one is deflected and they are not really well defended, to be honest. We lose the ball in the wrong moment, which is obviously a massive problem against Real Madrid with the counter-attacking threat they have and that’s how it came to the result.”