At Anfield, Liverpool melted the wings with which Real Madrid had taken flight after the shock of the derby and brought Xabi Alonso’s team back to earth, which recorded its second defeat of the season, once again surpassed by a rival of weight and more revolutions. And it could have left him even more scars if he had not had Thibaut Courtois, illuminated like on his most sensational nights. Madrid has gained strength, but it still does not seem enough for the big places, and Liverpool arrived limping after a good collection of defeats and they, in what seemed like the definitive takeoff. But it’s still not enough.
1
Giorgi Mamardashvili, Virgil van Dijk, Andy Robertson (Milos Kerkez, min. 87), Conor Bradley, Ibrahima Konaté, Alexis Mac Allister (Curtis Jones, min. 78), Dominik Szoboszlai, Mohamed Salah, Ryan Gravenberch, Florian Wirtz (Federico Chiesa, min. 87) and Hugo Ekitiké (Cody Gakpo, min. 78)
0
Thibaut Courtois, Federico Valverde (Brahim Díaz, min. 89), Dean Huijsen, Álvaro Carreras, Éder Militão, Jude Bellingham, Vinícius Júnior, Eduardo Camavinga (Rodrygo, min. 68), Arda Güler (Trent Alexander-Arnold, min. 81), Aurélien Tchouaméni and Kylian Mbappé
Goals
1-0 min. 60: Alexis MacAllister
Referee István Kovács
yellow cards
Vinicius Junior (min. 22), Dean Huijsen (min. 45), Alexis Mac Allister (min. 51), Jude Bellingham (min. 59), Álvaro Carreras (min. 94), Alonso (min. 95)
To visit Anfield, Xabi rescued the classic formula, the four with whom he supported the middle: Tchouameni, Güler, Bellingham and Camavinga, who returned to the right wing. The test went well against Barcelona and they also resisted Liverpool during the beginning. Unlike what happened against Atlético at the Metropolitano, Madrid were not floating adrift, shaken by the rival’s electricity. He had put up with Barça and did not hand over command to the English either.
The match started with a distribution of phases between two teams of the same tonnage. Xabi’s scaffolding and commitment seemed to support Real, who had suffered so much a year ago in that stadium. Hence the initial alternation. Liverpool began with an overwhelming torrent of newly opened floodgates that Madrid tried to surf without finding the point on which to stand, unable to link three passes, subdued in their field. The point on which he rested the pole to jump the fence was like Vinicius many times.
Carreras evaded a couple of balls from the voracious pressure of the English and sent them to a free space through which the Brazilian was flying. 7 once again looks sharp, fast, daring, overflowing with imagination in his dance with Bradley. He is already a classic threat at Anfield, pushing the entire Liverpool back. There Madrid managed to rest, playing while the English pressed back, fearful that the Brazilian’s ingenuity would connect with Mbappé and Bellingham.
A stretch was played targeting Mamardashvili, until Liverpool regrouped, found a way to circumvent the pressure exerted by Real’s attackers and the action moved to the other side. There was another duo fighting, in which Carreras controlled Salah after having eliminated Lamine Yamal. The side has risen after the derby stumble.
But another footballer levitated above everything, to an almost unreal level. Liverpool tilted the field towards the Madrid goal, where Courtois once again dazzled, a familiar nightmare for the English, with the aroma of that impossible night in which he deprived them of the Champions League in 2022 in Paris. Wirtz took advantage of a bad clearance by Huijsen, very hesitant, advanced down the wing and found Szoboszlai in the center, who entered alone for the penalty spot. The Hungarian tried to chip the ball, but Courtois raised his right leg and prevented the goal. It was the first stop in a collection of illuminated moments that were actually the symptom that Real was losing its footing almost permanently. There was no turning back.
The Hungarian demanded a flight with a long shot, MacAllister another stretch and Van Dijk, an impossible burst with a header from less than a meter away. The siege began with control of the ball, increasingly elusive for Xabi’s platoon, and it exploded in Courtois’s face in a shower of lateral crosses that were always finished off by Liverpool players. Until MacAllister hit one of Szoboszlai’s deliveries.
The game was going only one way. There was no news from Vinicius or Mbappé, Bellingham disconnected from the general circuit, and Güler never seemed to connect to it. But above all, the trace of the initial effort to recover at the top had been lost. The pressure had frayed under Liverpool’s conviction and the team was blurring until it remembered the one that had been shaken a year earlier on the same stage. The Slot team did not let up. Wirtz and Szoboszlai, two artists, spared nothing by accompanying MacAllister and Gravenberch. And Real couldn’t stand that push that melted their ideas.
Xabi maneuvered by removing Camavinga and bringing in Rodrygo to try to look forward on the right, a wasteland until then. He also sent Trent there, who was returning from his injury and above all returning to his usual home, which received him with anger still burning. But the one who appeared again was Courtois, who saved a point-blank shot from Gakpo. Madrid’s first takeoff was aborted for the moment on the great stage of the European Cup at Anfield.
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