Holders Real Madrid secured their place in the last 16 of the Champions League with two games to spare when a Karim Benzema strike secured a 1-0 win in their Group B match at home to a toothless Liverpool.

Benzema clipped a Marcelo cross high into the net from close range in the 27th minute to maintain Real's perfect record in the pool with 12 points from four games.

It was the record 10-times European champions' 12th win in a row in all competitions and followed their 3-0 success against Liverpool at Anfield last month.

A major surprise was the fact that Cristiano Ronaldo failed to get on the scoresheet and he remains one goal short of the Champions League scoring record of 71 set by former Real and Schalke 04 forward Raul.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.