The return of Fernando Torres provided the spark Liverpool have been missing of late as Rafael Benitez’s side swept into the last eight of the Champions League with a 4-0 demolition of Real Madrid here on Tuesday.
In more than half a century of European competition this was the nine-times European champions’s first visit to Anfield and, after what was a painfully chastening evening, they will be in no hurry to return.
It is now five years since Real last managed to advance beyond this stage of the competiton while Liverpool take their place in the quarter-finals for the fourth time in five seasons under Benitez.
Torres, sidelined since an ankle injury forced him to limp out of the first leg, capped an exhilarating display of pace and technique with a 16th-minute opener.
A double from captain Steven Gerrard, the first from the penalty spot, and a late strike by substitute Andrea Dossena completed a 5-0 aggregate win.
From the outset it was evident that Juande Ramos’s side would struggle to cope with the drive, pace and invention of a Liverpool side playing with a verve that belied their recent stuttering form in the Premier League.
More of the same at Manchester United on Saturday and the domestic title race might just be back on again, particularly if Torres can stay fit for the run-in.
Despite his two-week lay-off, the Spaniard was quickly reminding the Anfield faithful of what their side misses in his absence.
Collecting a pass from Gerrard on the edge of the penalty box, he pulled off the most audacious flick-and-turn combination to leave Fabio Cannavaro wobbling on his heels while the striker bore down on Casillas.
The goalkeeper’s boot frustrated Torres’s attempt at a cute near post finish but the tone for the evening had been set.
The corner that resulted from that piece of genius from Torres was cleared to Javier Mascherano, whose shot would have dipped under the bar but for the Spain goalkeeper’s second fine save of the evening.
Upended on the edge of the area, Gerrard curled an 8th-minute freekick around the Real wall. Casillas’s position was predictably immaculate but by this stage a goal for the hosts was looking a question of when, not if.
It duly arrived with quarter of an hour gone. Cannavoro and his fellow centreback Pepe failed to deal with a bouncing ball on the edge of their area, Torres muscled his way between them, fed the overlapping Dirk Kuyt and went on to stab home the Dutchman’s low cross.
A glancing header from Martin Skrtl drew another good stop from Casillas and the Real keeper excelled himself further to keep out Gerrard’s full-stretch volley after another piece of trickery from Torres had left Sergi Ramos sprawling on the left of the box.
Liverpool had done enough to earn a second goal but the penalty that brought it was unfortunate for Real. Gabriel Heinze unable to get out of the way when Alvaro Arbeloa’s attempted to chest the ball down sent it against his upper arm.
For once, Casillas made the wrong call, diving the wrong way as Gerrard thumped the spot-kick to his right.
Belatedly spurred into action, Real finally forced Pepe Reina into a save and it required a good one to keep out Wesley Sneijder’s free-kick, unleashed with rare ferocity before a wall had been assembled.
The Dutchman, whose season has been blighted by injury, tested Reina again just before the interval after Arjen Robben, largely anonymous until then, got free on the left and cut the ball back to his international team-mate.
Sneijder’s growing influence offered Real encouragement they might be able to make a game of it after the break.
But any optimism on that score was extinguished within two minutes of the restart as Real’s fragile defending was exposed again.
Babel found getting away from Sergi Ramos on the left far too easy and the winger’s cutback was perfectly measured for an untracked Gerrard to sidefoot past Casillas from 14 yards.
Dossena’s close-range strike finished Real off two minutes from time after Babel and Mascherano had combined down the right to open up their demoralised opponents.
