Arne Slot, Manager of Liverpool, applauds the fans after the team's victory in the UEFA Champions League 2025/26 League Phase MD4 match between Liverpool FC and Real Madrid C.F. at Anfield on November 04, 2025 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Liverpool FC/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)placeholder image
Arne Slot, Manager of Liverpool, applauds the fans after the team's victory in the UEFA Champions League 2025/26 League Phase MD4 match between Liverpool FC and Real Madrid C.F. at Anfield on November 04, 2025 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Liverpool FC/Liverpool FC via Getty Images) | Liverpool FC via Getty Images
Liverpool earned a 1-0 victory over Real Madrid in the Champions League at Anfield.
Arne Slot hailed his Liverpool players after executing their game plan to nullify Real Madrid’s dangermen to perfection.
The Reds delivered a 1-0 triumph over the Spanish giants at Anfield as they sent out a statement to the rest of their Champions League rivals. Alexis Mac Allister netted the only goal of the game in the 61st minute but the Premier League champions’ triumph could easily have been by a wider margin only for the heroic of Real goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois.
Madrid, who have won the European Cup a record 15 times and top La Liga, barely threatened Liverpool throughout the encounter. Kylian Mbappe, who has scored 18 goals already this season, was quiet while Vinicius Jr was quelled by an excellent defensive performance from Conor Bradley.
After four successive Premier League defeats - and six losses in seven games in all competitions - the Reds have now recorded back-to-back wins having beaten Aston Villa 2-0 last weekend.
What’s been said
Slot believes that both games taking place at Anfield helped and he hailed the ‘outstanding’ performance of Bradley. Speaking at his post-match press conference, the Liverpool head coach said: “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 then faced a team that had a lot of rest.
“Tonight we played against a team that played on Saturday as well, so the both of us had two days' rest. Then it's helpful to play a home game, because from the last eight I think we played six away from home. The fans can give you just a little bit of an extra edge if you are a little bit tired.
“Conor was outstanding. It was very nice. Last season he was outstanding against Real Madrid but he had to go off after 80 minutes because of an injury. Now, three days after he played 90 minutes against Villa, he again played 90 minutes with incredible intensity against Vinicius. I told the players before the game, they have scored 26 goals in La Liga and Kylian Mbappe and Vinicius have 24 goal contributions together. So if you want to have any chance of winning a game, you should defend your set-pieces well because that's a way teams score, but great individuals can score goals as well and these two definitely can. Conor defended very good against Vinicius.
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