And on 28 minutes Liverpool stretched their aggregate lead following another contentious decision. A floated diagonal pass from Alonso was controlled on the chest by Arbeloa and appeared at first sight to ricochet off Heinze’s flailing right arm.

Replays, though, confirmed Real’s protestations that it was a harsh decision when referee De Bleeckere pointed to the spot, Gerrard subsequently sending Casillas the wrong way to score.

But in truth, Madrid couldn’t complain about the scoreline after being made to look an absolute shambles in defence by a vibrant Liverpool.

The visitors finally roused themselves before the interval. Pepe Reina made a flying save to turn behind Wesley Sneijder’s 25-yard free-kick and held further efforts from the Dutchman and Raul.

However, any hopes of a Madrid comeback evaporated two minutes after the interval with the goal of the night, Gerrard starting and ending a move by arriving in the box to slam home a left-wing cross from Ryan Babel, who improved on his recent showings.

Casillas then denied Gerrard and later Torres, with homegrown youngster Jay Spearing earning cheers from the jubilant Anfield crowd by emerging from the bench late on.

Liverpool set the seal on a memorable evening when a counter-attack two minutes from time ended with Mascherano crossing for substitute Dossena to slot home.

Benitez had declared himself as never satisfied before the game. Afterwards, he was cajoled into admitting: “I’m close to being fully satisfied but we could have scored more goals, so we have to improve a little bit.”

For Liverpool’s Champions League rivals, that must be a frightening prospect on this evidence.