LIVERPOOL were back to their best as they dominated Real Madrid with an outstanding performance to secure a crucial Champions League victory at Anfield.
Arne Slot’s Premier League champions ended a spell of six defeats in seven games with a win against Aston Villa on Saturday, and the revival continued as Real were overpowered.
Liverpool’s victory was far more convincing than the scoreline suggests, with Alexis Mac Allister finally breaking the deadlock in the second half as former Reds defender Trent Alexander-Arnold watched from the bench with his new side strictly second best.
Only the brilliance of Real keeper Thibaut Courtois kept Liverpool at bay, with a string of superb saves, including four from Dominik Szoboszlai and a brilliant reflex stop from Virgil van Dijk’s header.
Courtois was powerless to stop Liverpool finally getting the goal their superiority deserved when Mac Allister stole in to head home from Szoboszlai’s free-kick after 61 minutes.
Alexander-Arnold came on late in the game, amid a storm of booing from the Liverpool fans who once idolised him, but he was unable to fashion a breakthrough as Real – with Jude Bellingham and Kylian Mbappe subdued – unable to deny Slot’s team an important three points.
Conor Bradley has long been regarded as the heir apparent to the vacancy left behind by Alexander-Arnold, and the 22-year-old Northern Ireland defender showed exactly why with an outstanding display.
Liverpool’s fans revelled in Bradley’s physical battle with Vinicius Jr, chanting his name to the echo while reserving their fury for the local boy who left Anfield behind.
Bradley’s progress has been curtailed by injuries, but he was the symbol of a Liverpool display which carried all the old intensity and creation that deserted them during their recent run of losses.
Szoboszlai was outstanding in midfield, only denied by the brilliance of Courtois, while match-winner Mac Allister’s return to form in the last two games has also transformed a side that looked lost earlier this season.
Liverpool’s defence never yielded to Real at any point, and it was only when Courtois was at his defiant best that it looked like the Reds might not get the win that pushes them up into sixth in the table, a standing that would earn them automatic passage into the last 16 without the need for a play-off.
