Cristiano Ronaldo saluted another "fantastic" Real Madrid performance as the European champions claimed a comprehensive 3-0 win at Liverpool.

Ronaldo himself was in scintillating form, opening the scoring in their Champions League Group B encounter midway through the first half with a tremendous half-volley finish from James Rodriguez's delightful chip.

Surprisingly, it was the former Manchester United star's first goal at Anfield and, although he passed up several further chances to add to his tally, it mattered little as Karim Benzema's brace put the Spanish giants three goals to the good before half-time.

Carlo Ancelotti's men eased off in the second half, perhaps with half an eye on Saturday's showdown with Barcelona, but that did not take away from a great display for Ronaldo.

He said: "It was special. It was my first goal here, so I feel very proud for that.

"We win three points, so amazing. We knew Anfield is a difficult place, but we played fantastic, especially in the first 45 minutes. We deserved to win.

"I'm happy because it's dedication and hard work but the best thing is the team wins. We have nine points, so 75% of the qualification is done."

Real now have one foot in the knockout stages as they are six points ahead of Liverpool, Basel and Ludogorets, and Ronaldo sees no reason why they cannot become the first team to retain the Champions League title.

"Why not? We're thinking step by step," the Portugal forward said. "We know that the qualification is the priority of the team, but we're going to try, like last year. We know it's going to be very tough, but we are positive. It will be possible if we play like that."

Liverpool forward Mario Balotelli again attracted the ire of fans for a lacklustre performance before risking further condemnation by swapping shirts with Real defender Pepe at half-time - when he was replaced by Adam Lallana.

Reds boss Brendan Rodgers knew nothing of his £16million summer signing's antics before entering the tunnel and stressed he would deal with the situation, as he said he did when Mamadou Sakho did something similar with Samuel Eto'o in December.

"That's the first I've heard of it but it's something that I don't like to see, I've seen it happen in other leagues and other countries but it's something that doesn't happen here and shouldn't happen," he said.

"We had an incident last year with a player, which I dealt with, and if that's the case, then I'll deal with this as well."

As for withdrawing Balotelli at the interval, Rodgers said he felt the controversial Italian was under-performing.

He added: "I felt that we needed a bit more intensity and someone to create through the middle and occupy their centre-halves a wee bit more.

"Adam Lallana came on and did very, very well. Raheem Sterling played up there, which was difficult for him but he kept trying and it's not a natural position for him.

"In the second half every single player was pressing and working, wanting to get something from the game."