Liverpool recorded a Champions League double over Real Madrid.
Alexis Mac Allister finally broke the deadlock shortly after the hour mark by powering home from a Dominik Szoboszlai’s right-sided free kick into the box.
The Reds are now sixth in the league phase standings of Europe’s elite club competition after putting Los Blancos to the sword twice in as many seasons.
Here were they key talking points from Anfield:
More than most, Conor Bradley must relish Liverpool’s battles with Real Madrid.
For a second season running, the Northern Ireland captain pocketed another of the Galacticos array of stars to the point of embarrassment for Vinicius.
Xabi Alonso pitted the Brazilian up against Bradley in the hopes that Los Blancos could exploit his one-time employers’ weak spot in the back four.
No such luck for the former playmaker as Vinicius was second best to Bradley in practically every contest, even when his opposite number broke downfield.
By the first half’s midway point, Liverpool’s academy graduate already had the measure of Vinicius whose antics got progressively worse after his booking.
A full repertoire of histrionics got dusted off as Madrid’s No.7 attempted in vain to draw cheap and even pernicious fouls during the course of their clash.
Belly-flopping in the penalty area after Bradley’s hand barely touched his face summed up his sheer desperation to try and put one over on the 22-year-old.
Vinicius infamously declared after last year’s Ballon d’Or snub that ‘They ain’t ready’ in his quest to win the ultimate personal accolade in the long run.
But like Kylian Mbappe last year, he wasn’t ready for a defensive masterclass.
They say you should never change a winning formula but Arne Slot begs to differ.
It would have been easy for Liverpool’s head coach to stick with the tried and tested line-up which ended an abject losing streak against Aston Villa at the weekend.
Slot, however, has already proven himself a problem solver and continued the theme for Madrid’s visit by throwing summer signing Florian Wirtz back into the mix.
Whether due to the intermittent spells out of the starting XI or coming up against a high-calibre European opponent, the Germany international thrived in his new role.
There is no disputing that Wirtz is a generational talent – Slot’s predecessor Jurgen Klopp can see it, too – but he has cut a largely frustrated figure in the Reds’ line-up.
Yet it was Madrid’s backline that was on the back foot as the 22-year-old led them in a merry dance for the best part of this clash from the left-hand side of the attack.
In the first half alone, he created five chances against Alonso’s continental kings, more than any other player on the pitch or any Liverpool player this season.
If this is the week that things begin to finally look up again at Anfield, Slot deserves credit for finding incremental tweaks to fix what was clearly broken.
All the pre-match talk in Liverpool’s latest rematch with Madrid invariably centred on how Trent Alexander-Arnold would be received on a first return to his boyhood club.
Kopites’ affection for the player they once dubbed ‘a Scouser in our team’ has plummeted at an alarming rate since he signalled intentions to leave as a free agent.
The nature in which he ran down his contract to secure a move to the Bernabeu, where executed a semi-fluent introduction in Spanish, left an incredibly sour taste.
Remarkably, some impartial observers believed Alexander-Arnold merited a hero’s welcome despite all that went before and the pre-match defacing of his mural.
Such pie-in-the-sky thinking was never going to be taken on board by supporters who continue to feel scorned by the West Derby native’s perceived deception.
Even before a bit-part appearance, Alexander-Arnold will have known what to expect from the ear-splitting cacophony of boos directed his way throughout.
But contrary to what his sparring partner Jude Bellingham claimed post-match, it was not performative or a misrepresentation about fans’ true feelings of him.