The dazzling goal conjured up between £80m Cristiano Ronaldo and the £65m James Rodriguez informed this proud old place of the new realities of the Champions League in the most devastatingly emphatic way imaginable.
Even after Karim Benzema scored two more before half-time, the urgings of the Mersey choir did not go unheard.
Against teams as opulent as these Spanish grandees, though, there is no sucking in of the ball by the crowd, as they used to fancifully claim happened at that Kop End in the glory days of this stadium.
On this kind of form - not all-encompassingly wonderful but ruthlessly brilliant when it mattered - Ronaldo would probably have just sucked it back and captured it between those dazzling white teeth, anyway.
This was his 70th Champions League goal by the way. Never forget, whenever anyone suggests there is too much of the peacock about him, that few players have so consistently made commanded and shaped their talent so well.
In that way, the game's great, ever-widening new gulf was on display last night and there wasn't much point complaining about it or pondering Liverpool's defensive frailties, which have hampered them domestically, too.
Real Madrid were 3-0 up at the break thanks to goals from Ronaldo and Benzema (x2) [GETTY]
Brendan Rodgers spent nearly £100m last summer preparing his team for the twin challenges of the Premier League and this competition, to which Liverpool have returned after five years.
Very quickly on this sobering night against not quite the best of the best around, it was made clear that all the laying out of such sums gives you these is a starting point; the opportunity to ponder how, actually, you get out of the foothiils of the elite game and back to the very top, which seems a very distant place from Anfield just now.
In the new landscape of the Champions League, the serious wealth and might is now concentrating more strikingly among a new, rarefied strata of global super clubs.
Even Inter Milan's triumph of 2010 seems a bit of an oddity now because they are not among the main elite anymore. Since then the winners have been the super-super rich - Barcelona, Chelsea, Bayern Munch and last season, for the 10th time, Real.
One side-line irony here was that in Madrid's defence was Alvaro Arbeloa, who once played in red here before moving to the Bernabeu. Even before kick-off, a tot-up by a neutral would have delivered the verdict that not one of the current Liverpool team would find a place in Carlo Ancelotti's line-up; although, one day, Raheem Sterling might end up there.
Liverpool v Hull City - Premier League Preview
Invalid email
We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you've consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. Read our Privacy Policy
Fair enough, that's probably true of at least 95 per cent of clubs. But this was the return of the five-times winners Liverpool to the grand stage of the European Cup after a two tentative opening matches against Ludgorets and Basle. So, nearly five years after they crushed Real 4-0 on this pitch, it was time to assess the changes which have occurred.
True enough, there was no inferiority complex about Liverpool at the beginning here,as they set about having a proper go from the start, with Sterling threatening a little impish wizardry in the penalty box after only five minutes.
This is how the barricades are stormed by weight of pressing in the Premier League. Real had too many good players and, very soon, too much of the ball for this idea, though.
By the break, Liverpool had conceded three times in the first half of a Champions League game since the night they won the final in Istanbul in 2005. Few saw a way back this time, although the probed away gamely enough in the second half.
Real never appeared bothered by all the famous fervour and atmosphere of this ground, either. Not while half the Crown Jewels of the European game lined up in white. As hope dimmed, aristocracy and refinement held sway massively over the spirit and traditions of Anfield. Hola again, Liverpool. Things have changed a hell of a lot.