Red Star Belgrade players were performing a lap of honour outside when Jürgen Klopp entered the media room with Baby, I Love Your Way by Big Mountain booming out of the PA. It was one more indignity on a night of many for the Liverpool manager. His team’s performance was the gravest. They floundered in the face of a vibrant and resolute Red Star to place their qualification hopes at unnecessary risk.

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This was Liverpool’s 200th game in the European Cup/Champions League and it is debatable whether they have played in an atmosphere as wild while responding so meekly. Two goals from the striker Milan Pavkov, the second a truly outstanding effort, delivered a famous victory and Red Star’s first win in the competition – qualifiers excluded – since they were defending champions in 1992.

“A different beast at home,” Andy Robertson had described them as. Liverpool could not contain the beast. The worry for Klopp and company is that they have become a different proposition away from Anfield in the Champions League this season. Paris Saint-Germain await next in France. Liverpool have left themselves little margin for error.

The Marakana’s reputation for passion, hostility and incessant noise proved no exaggeration, although Klopp rightly insisted it was no excuse for the performance Liverpool served up. It was a spectacular backdrop and Red Star responded in kind. Heavily armed soldiers lined the entrances and the volume levels increased in tandem with the home side’s control of the contest. There was also a warm ovation for members of the Red Star team who beat Liverpool 2-1 at Anfield 45 years to the day, when they paraded around the pitch before kick-off. Red Star’s display befitted the backing they received. Liverpool’s supported the theory that the Marakana intimidates.

Klopp’s selection, having omitted Xherdan Shaqiri to avoid any political distractions, looked questionable and complacent from the start. Roberto Firmino’s rare absence from the starting line-up was understandable, with the Brazilian fatigued of late, but the introduction of Daniel Sturridge, Adam Lallana and Joël Matip added to their disjointed approach.

Sturridge should have opened the scoring when Robertson turned Sadio Mané’s cross into his path but under no pressure, he skied wastefully over. It would prove a costly miss, one that energised the home crowd even more, and a short-lived tactical switch.

While Mané and Mo Salah had space to attack the flanks and Virgil van Dijk made another impressive start, the Liverpool performance as a whole deteriorated as the first half progressed. Red Star opened brightly, as they had done at Anfield, but this time they had the talent and support to capitalise. The former Chelsea midfielder Marko Marin missed the 4-0 defeat through injury but he was at the heart of a creative and confident display from the champions of Serbia. Pavkov, on the bench at Anfield, embraced his opportunity in place of the sidelined Richmond Boakye.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Mohamed Salah was one of several Liverpool players to miss chances. Photograph: Andrej Isakovic/AFP/Getty Images

Marin had the first chance of the game when El Fardou Ben Nabouhane found him in too much space behind Trent Alexander-Arnold. He cut inside and shot tamely at Alisson, then served Liverpool warning of what was to come with a dangerous corner that produced a shot over from Vujadin Savic. The captain was another of those who missed the Anfield meeting, and he brought a marked improvement to Red Star.

The Marakana erupted following Marin’s next corner from the right. It was floated deep into the six-yard box where the incoming Pavkov towered above the defenders and planted an unstoppable downward header beyond Alisson.

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The home fans were in uproar, Liverpool deflated, and worse followed seven minutes later for the visitors when the centre-forward doubled his tally in stunning fashion. Collecting possession 40 yards from goal, Pavkov easily shrugged aside Georginio Wijnaldum before closing in. Virgil Van Dijk and Matip retreated and the striker accepted their invitation to unleash a fabulous shot from distance that flew inside Alisson’s right post.

Liverpool were staring at a second damaging away defeat in the group and a mountainous assignment. No visiting team had won here since Arsenal in the Europa League in October 2017. Red Star had conceded once in five previous European home matches this season – a campaign that began in the qualifying rounds, four days before the World Cup final – and the visitors had not forced Milan Borjan into one first-half save. Klopp responded by introducing Firmino and Joe Gomez at half-time for Sturridge and Alexander-Arnold respectively. He got the reaction the situation demanded but not the desired change in score.

Firmino created a good chance for Mané that two defenders scrambled clear. The tone for a dominant second-half display from Liverpool had been set. Robertson had a cross deflected on to the crossbar by Filip Stojkovic, Salah struck the outside of a post following a James Milner corner – Salah also swept one of his own straight out of play – and Borjan saved twice from the Egyptian at close range. Van Dijk also headed over from Firmino’s cross as Liverpool exerted constant pressure but the home side happily dug in for a famous victory, roared to the last by their formidable support.