A look at how the national media reacted to Liverpool's 1-0 win over Real Madrid in the Champions League
Arne Slot reacts to Liverpool's win
Arne Slot reacts to Liverpool's win(Image: Alex Livesey - Danehouse/Getty Images)
View Image
Liverpool gave their season a huge shot in the arm with a 1-0 win over Real Madrid in the Champions League on Tuesday night at Anfield. Alexis Mac Allister's second-half header was enough in a game that saw visiting goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois make a string of superb saves to keep the score down.
The ECHO was at Anfield to run the rule over proceedings. You can catch our live blog, player ratings, post-match analysis and verdict all here. The reactions of Arne Slot and Xabi Alonso were also covered in the post-match press conferences.
Our colleagues from the national media were also on hand to give their own considered takes. Here's what they made of it.
Author avatar
Author avatar
The Telegraph's Chris Bascombe writes: "Real Madrid were kryptonite to Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool. They appear to be rocket fuel for Arne Slot.
"Klopp’s great Anfield side could never get past Los Blancos, the Champions League final defeats of 2018 and 2022 the most painful of the German’s reign on Merseyside. A mauling in the knockout round of 2023 triggered the end of an era, confirming that the foundations of Klopp’s European and Premier League triumphs had crumbled.
"Slot has now won consecutive fixtures against the Spanish giants in familiar style. Not even Thibaut Courtois repeating the heroics of the final three years ago could deny Liverpool a deserved victory.
"If the latest success is the catalyst it proved to be 12 months ago, those who have been gleefully predicting Liverpool’s demise on the back of their poor October will be as exhausted with despondency as they were last season. The terrors of Hallowe’en may already be over at Anfield. This was more fitting of an imminent bonfire night, Anfield ablaze with the spark of last season."
Over on the pages of the Daily Mail, Oliver Holt writes: "Outside Anfield, the fireworks sputtered and died in the teeming rain. Inside Anfield, it was a place for the rocket’s red glare and bombs bursting in air. It was a place of roars and frenzy and chanting for Stevey Heighway on the wing and for Conor Bradley, for heroes old and new. It was raw and it was visceral.
"And when it was done and the mighty Real Madrid had been vanquished and this old stadium had delivered another passion play on another memorable European night under the lights, Liverpool’s season felt alive again, alive with possibility and hope and ambition.
"The rocket came from Alexis Mac Allister a bullet of a header that whizzed past the head of Thibaut Courtois so fast and so furiously that he did not even have time to duck. It was a goal that was a fitting way to gild a Liverpool performance that revived memories of the relentlessness of the Jurgen Klopp era.
"It was not a happy return to English shores for Jude Bellingham, who gave away the free kick that led to Mac Allister’s goal and spent most of the night in the shadow of the Argentine and, particularly, Ryan Gravenberch, who was the game’s best player.
"This was not the triumphant return [Bellingham] would have hoped would seal the deal. Instead, it was Liverpool’s night, a night that put behind them their recent troubles. So much for four Premier League defeats in a row and the sudden vulnerability that afflicted them."
Paul Joyce, of The Times, writes: "By the time Trent Alexander-Arnold finally emerged from the cold storage of the Real Madrid substitutes’ bench and stepped over the whitewash, Anfield had other things on its mind.
"He was jeered of course. Every time he touched the ball as it turned out for the 13 or so minutes he was on the pitch, but the home crowd were also intent upon singing for their own.
"Players such as Dominik Szoboszlai, in looks and talent every inch a Galactico, Conor Bradley, who kept Vinicius Junior in check throughout, and also manager Arne Slot.
"And so the day ended in much the same way as it had begun. A clean-up operation outside the ground after vandalism to Alexander-Arnold’s mural ahead of his return had moved inside as night fell with Liverpool’s breathless determination to wash away the mess of recent weeks obvious in every tackle, shot and chase of a lost cause. There is plenty to salvage this season for Slot and his players."
The ECHO's verdict reads: "The cold, soulless facts will say Liverpool are now up to sixth in the group stage of the Champions League after this 1-0 win over Real Madrid. The reality, however, is that another triumph over the 15-time champions of Europe at Anfield might just have finally given lift-off to a new era under Arne Slot.
"The first two-and-a-half months of this campaign have not gone exactly to the plan. After a historic summer transfer window where close to £450m was forked out and around half of that was recouped, the glossy brochure that had Slot's Premier League champions as the all-conquering unbeatables has not quite looked like that in reality.
"It's been tough and even when games have been won, late goals have been needed too often and games have not been controlled in the manner that became so routine last year en route to league title No.20.
"Six defeats in seven prior to Saturday's much-needed 2-0 win over Aston Villa was indicative of a team struggling to find their groove amid the unusually high volume of turnover in the playing staff.
"But having taken an encouraging step towards the light at the end of the tunnel against Villa, the Reds took a quantum leap here as los Blancos were dispatched from Merseyside with nothing to show for their efforts for a second Champions League season running.
"The rule that forbids the same fixture being played three seasons running will be a welcome and much-needed reprieve for Madrid, one suspects. They won't want to return to Anfield in a hurry, that much is certain."