Jurgen Klopp: Real Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti feels they’ve reached Champions League quarter-finals

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp believes Real Madrid feel they are already through to the Champions League quarter-finals after an emphatic 5-2 win at Anfield.

The defending champions were trailing 2-0 early on in the first half before a Vinicius Jr brace, Eder Militao header and Karim Benzema double swung the last-16 encounter firmly in their favour.

Liverpool have it all to do ahead of the last-16 second leg on March 15, having become the first team in Champions League history to take a 2-0 lead and lose by a three-goal margin, and Klopp has conceded their hopes are remote.

Put to the Liverpool boss that Real boss Carlo Ancelotti said he could not say the last-16 tie was over, he said: ‘I think Carlo thinks the tie is over – and I think it as well in the moment.

‘But in three weeks – that is how it is in these moments – the closer you get to the game, the bigger our chances become and the less likely that the tie is over.

Jurgen Klopp (left) believes Carlo Ancelotti feels their Champions League tie is already ‘over’

Vinicius Jr (centre) scored twice as Real came from two down to win 5-2 at Anfield on Tuesday

The damaging loss at Anfield meant the Reds suffered the biggest home defeat in their history 

‘But tonight with a 5-2 when you see the game, they are pretty good in counter-attacking… we have to score there three goals and take some risks. That could be a bit tricky.

‘But it’s really not in my mind so we go there, I can say that now already, and try and win the game.

‘If that’s possible or not right now I don’t know but that’s what we will try and from there we will see.’

Despite their emphatic lead, Ancelotti is remaining humble about his side’s strong advantage.

Ancelotti, who has won the Champions League a record four times as a coach, praised the defending champions performance on Tuesday night.

The Real Madrid head coach lauded a ‘historic win’, but warned they would still have to suffer in the second leg despite their three-goal cushion.

‘It was an historic win, mostly because if you consider where we played and how we started the game, falling two goals behind,’ Ancelotti said. ‘But we never backed down and kept our cool, not panicked and we turned around a very difficult game.’

‘Winning like this isn’t easy, above all because of how the match began. We never lost confidence and little by little we won control of the ball. We were efficient up front and Vinicius Junior produced an incredible performance.

Ancelotti praised the ‘historic win’ but insisted his side have work to do in the second leg

Real Madrid became the first team to score five goals against Liverpool at Anfield in Europe

‘This is only the first part of a knockout tie, it’s gone our way, but we’ll need to imagine that in the second leg we’ll have to suffer and work hard.

‘Obviously we didn’t expect to start like we did but at 2-0 down I thought about the City away leg last year in the hope that we could do the same – but it turned out even better.

‘They were doing us damage down our left but when we were better in our attacks, we moved Valverde a little bit towards that danger and we then defended better.

‘Liverpool is a great team which made us suffer in the first half so I’d say that, unfortunately, this tie isn’t finished. No way.’