'Not the same team from last year': Courtois delivers blunt verdict on 'vulnerable' Liverpool

"Madrid will always be in the fight until the end," Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibault Courtois told Movistar after his team's 5-2 win at Anfield.

"I think that Liverpool is not the same team from last year, you have to be honest. They are more fragile at the back.

"Madrid will always be one of the favourites. We’ll see how far we’ll go."

In a separate interview with CBS Sports, Courtois said: "Karim [Benzema], when we were walking out, said 'we can score two or three goals for sure', and then this is what happened.

"They are vulnerable. With the space at the back, they press so high. The moment you can go out of this pressure there’s so much space, and obviously we have fast players on the counter-attack."

The keeper insisted, however, that the tie was not over even though his team has a three-goal lead ahead of the return leg at home.

"I think last year against Chelsea we thought the same and suddenly they were up 0-3 in the Bernabeu," he added.

"You know this can happen and we have to be careful, especially with this new away goal rule. You can not relax.

"They have a lot of quality up front to score goals and we have to concentrate, but obviously it is better to be up than down."

Courtois was in danger of going down as the butt of the joke after the game as his blunder led to Liverpool's second goal within 15 minutes.

So he can thank both his teammates and opponents for what happened next as Real Madrid scored five goals without reply and got themselves a solid cushion ahead of the game at Sant