Champions League: Liverpool 2 Real Madrid 0
Arne Slot’s Liverpool reboot has its latest dividend. His team continues to boast the only 100 per cent record in the Champions League group stage and this was not just another victory, it was a swatting aside of the holders, a statement of intent.
Real Madrid have hurt Liverpool more than any other opponent in Europe. In four of the previous seven seasons, they have ended their hopes – most agonisingly in the finals of 2018 and 2023.
This when a night when Liverpool asserted themselves and banished a few demons in the process, star turns everywhere but especially from Conor Bradley at right-back. He was up against Kylian Mbappé and not only barely gave him a kick, he found the time to get forward in the second half when he teed up Alexis Mac Allister for the opening goal. He was given a tremendous ovation when he was forced off towards the end, having felt something in the back of his leg.
Madrid were a pale imitation of their best selves, Mbappé not the only player to go missing in action. He was the most high-profile, mainly because he saw a penalty that would have given his team a lifeline at 1-0 saved by Republic of Ireland international Caoimhín Kelleher. Mohamed Salah would miss one at the other end for Liverpool shortly afterwards, which he won himself after tying Ferland Mendy in knots. Salah blasted the kick wide.
There would be no outlandish comeback of the sort that Madrid specialise, the Liverpool substitute Coady Gakpo rising to bury a header after Andy Robertson had worked a short corner routine with the outstanding Curtis Jones. With three defeats out of five in the competition, Madrid are in trouble.
The recent history was a part of it, Liverpool feeling it. Not in a way that took in revenge – it was a group phase tie, that could not happen. But just feeling it, all that heartache, especially when glory had been so close.
When Madrid were last here, in the first leg of the last 16 two seasons ago, Vinícius Junior had scored twice to inspire a 5-2 win to set up his club to progress. He did not travel on this occasion – one of a handful of injured Madrid players – which might have been a relief to Liverpool given how routinely he has tormented them. He was a miss for his team.
Cody Gakpo scores Liverpool's second goal against Real Madrid under pressure from Luka Modric. Photograph: Justin Setterfield/Getty Images
Cody Gakpo scores Liverpool's second goal against Real Madrid under pressure from Luka Modric. Photograph: Justin Setterfield/Getty Images
Liverpool had key players out, others fit enough only for the bench, such as Trent Alexander-Arnold, but they were focused purely on who was available and the task at hand.
No Vinícius meant Kylian Mbappé on the left – a rare treat for him – and it was Jude Bellingham behind him on the left of the Madrid midfield three, albeit he had the licence to drift into central areas. Mbappé heard boos at the outset and Liverpool nearly punished him when he dawdled on his first involvement with the ball.
Mbappé wanted to freeze-frame the play, to set himself up for something but he was unceremoniously robbed by Mohamed Salah, who set Darwin Núñez away. Thibaut Courtois would push out Núñez’s shot but it came off Raúl Asensio to trickle towards the goal. Asensio stretched back to hack off the line. The jeers would track Mbappé; ditto Bellingham, who played with a heavy strapping on his left leg.
It was niggly, confrontations flaring, first between Núñez and Asensio when a bit of jostling escalated into hefty shoves from each player. Both were booked. When Mbappé tried to show his twinkle toes in the 17th minute, Virgil van Dijk stepped up to leave something on him. Call it a marker, which was followed by a gesture for Mbappé to get up. Ryan Gravenberch was booked for questioning the free-kick decision.
It was a night when the Anfield crowd bayed for their players to win the one-on-ones – and saw them do so. Their greater physicality was the platform for their threat in the first half, with the moment that summed it up and got the biggest roar coming when Arda Güler released Mbappé. Across came Bradley to clean him out with the perfect slide tackle, the timing impeccable, aggression to the fore.
Liverpool had all of the chances before the interval, with Courtois called upon to make a big save on 23 minutes when Ferland Mendy got a foot in on Curtis Jones and the ball broke towards Núñez. The goalkeeper is a hulking presence. He made himself even bigger at close quarters to block. Luis Díaz had snatched at two early shooting opportunities. Towards the end of the first period, Mac Allister dinked balls over the top for first Núñez and then Díaz. On the first one, Núñez’s header rolled inches wide of the far post.
It was possible to fear that Liverpool would rue their inability to make their first-half ascendancy count. This was Madrid, right? The masters of fighting back from the brink. And surely Mbappé could not remain so ineffective? He would not continue to run into red shirts?
The fears seemed to float away when Mac Allister scored. It had been coming, Liverpool straight back on to the front foot after the restart. What was most noticeable was how Bradley pushed high into an inside forward position from right-back.
Bradley had a golden chance for 1-0 when he ghosted unmarked into the area only for Courtois to plunge to his right and save. But it was quickly forgotten when Bradley teed up Mac Allister for the breakthrough. Jones was involved at the beginning of the move and Mac Allister finished by taking a touch away from goal and then wrapping a low shot back into the far corner. Jones was having fun on the ball, so were all of his team-mates and Mac Allister almost scored again, whipping a shot just off target.
The Madrid penalty was grievously against the run of play, Andy Robertson guilty of overcommitting, the substitute Lucas Vásquez seeing him coming, feeling the slight contact and going to ground. So Madrid were going to come back? Wrong. Kelleher’s save was a showstopper. – Guardian