Arne Slot reacts to his Liverpool side's 1-0 win over Real Madrid in the Champions League at Anfield
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 4: Conor Bradley of Liverpool celebrates with Arne Slot manager / head coach of Liverpool at full time following the 1-0 victory during the UEFA Champions League 2025/26 League Phase MD4 match between Liverpool FC and Real Madrid C.F. at Anfield on November 4, 2025 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images)
Arne Slot makes a beeline for the outstanding Conor Bradley after Liverpool's superb win over Real Madrid
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Arne Slot has explained the gameplan that helped Liverpool inflict another Champions League defeat on Real Madrid. Alexis Mac Allister headed the only goal on 61 minutes from a Dominik Szoboszlai free-kick as the Reds beat the Spanish giants 1-0 at Anfield on Tuesday evening.
It was a second successive victory for Liverpool after ending a run of six defeats in seven with a 2-0 Premier League win over Aston Villa on Saturday and only a fourth clean sheet of the campaign.
And Slot believes the concentration on stopping dangermen Kylian Mbappe – who had 18 goals in 14 games this season – and Vincius Jnr paid dividends.
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“I told the players they had scored 26 goals in La Liga and Vinicius and Mbappe had 24 goal contributions together,” the Reds head coach said.
“I don’t think you can ever control these two completely but you can do a few things well. We did almost the maximum you can do against these two individuals.
“If you want to have any chance of winning a game you have to defend set-pieces well but great individuals can score goals as well.”
Asked about Liverpool’s back-to-back wins, Slot said: “Both teams played quite similar against us.
“Maybe the difference was that I told the players today that I wanted them to either press really high or go to a low block because Vinicius and Mbappe are for so many reasons incredible players but their timing of deep runs and pace is next level.
“Don’t give away any space in behind and that’s what our last line did very well tonight. A very solid defensive performance in both games but it also helps you are not 1-0 or 2-0 down when we had to take extra risks and sometimes a bit exposed.”
Liverpool, who beat Real Madrid 2-0 at Anfield in the league stage of the Champions League last season, now have nine points from 12 at the halfway point of the opening round.
And Slot said: “It was an impressive win because we played against an incredible side. A team that is in an unbelievable run of form, only lost once and won all their other games. If you then can win against them with the performance we had then that’s very positive.
“Apart from everything we can say we beat them because of a set-piece. It’s nicer to talk about this if you win, but a positive set-piece balance is the minimum to get a result nine out of 10 times and that’s what we got today.
“We had a very bad run of form in terms of results. No excuse in the world can make up for us losing so many games. But we had to play a lot of games in a small amount of time with hardly any rest in between when we faced a team who had a lot of rest.
“Today we faced a team who also played on a Saturday and it’s helpful we played at home. It can give you a bit of an extra edge.”