What stems next for Liverpool following their Champions League defeat against Real Madrid?

Liverpool’s torrid season went from bad to worse on Tuesday as Jurgen Klopp’s side suffered a humiliating 5-2 defeat at home to Real Madrid in the Champions League.

Though the last-16 tie is only halfway done, even the most optimistic of Liverpool fans will find it hard to believe this struggling team can win by a four-goal margin at the Santiago Bernabéu in three weeks’ time.

Coming into this match off back-to-back wins in the Premier League for the first time since December, Liverpool raced into an early two-goal lead thanks to Darwin Núñez’s sublime flick and an embarrassing error from Thibaut Courtois that allowed Mo Salah to pounce.

Two goals from Vinícius Jr. before half time – the first a brilliant finish into the bottom corner and the second thanks to a calamitous error from Alisson – turned the game on its head.

Real Madrid came out firing in the second half, taking the lead for the first time inside the opening two minutes through Éder Militão’s header, before Karim Benzema’s brace ended the match as a contest.

These kinds of capitulations have haunted Liverpool since the season restarted following the World Cup, with similar collapses occurring against Brentford, Brighton and Wolves in the Premier League.

Klopp once again looked helpless on the sidelines as his team fell apart, only able to muster a wry, helpless smile as the cameras panned to him following Real Madrid’s fifth goal.

“I think the whole first half was good, besides the [Real] goals.

The only remaining way the team could salvage the season would be to finish fourth in the Premier League and qualify for next season’s Champions League.

It’s certainly not an impossible task, with Liverpool seven points behind Tottenham in fourth, but with two games in hand.

After chasing trophies on all four fronts, Liverpool ended up winning the FA Cup and League Cup, but agonizingly lost out by a point to Manchester City in the Premier League and lost 1-0 to Real Madrid in the Champions League final.

Those two moral-sapping defeats have undoubtedly affected the team this season, while many fans have pointed to a lack of investment – in particular in the midfield – from the club’s Fenway Sports Group owners as a cause of the team’s failings.

In the aftermath of the Tuesday’s game, Klopp insisted there was plenty he could take from the match and said his team can “learn from” the mistakes that led to the defeat.