Magnifico Los Blancos barrer a un lado Los Rojos
Liverpool 2 Real Madrid 5, 21st February 2023.
Liverpool 2 Real Madrid 5, 21st February 2023.
LIVERPOOL 2 (Nunez 4, Salah 14)
REAL MADRID 5 (Vinicius Jr 21 and 36, Militao 47, Benzema 55 and 67)
Act One: Goal scoring gems and goalkeeping gaffs
Doctor Horseman, the finest fiddle player in the south, joined the match late last evening and seeing the score at 2–1 messaged his footballing friend for the exciting skinny on events thus far. I described there being a “Red Wave” of Liverpool dominance over a poor, disjointed looking Real Madrid, their goalkeeper, that pompous self important prig, had gifted us a goal, but I still feared Vinicius Junior’s brilliantly taken goal on 21 minutes to be a turning point in an already thrilling and pulsating game of Champions League football. Mere seconds after communicating my early game thoughts to the musical doctor, Virgil van Dijk swept a sumptuous cross field ball from left to right, defence to attacking midfield, and perfectly to the feet of his captain Jordan Henderson. A simple quick passage of play followed between Fabinho and Trent Alexander-Arnold before the local boy released a perfect pass into the overlapping run of his captain. Henderson’s square ball into the Madrid penalty area caused chaos with Mo Salah and Darwin Nunez both scrambling for a final goal bound touch that was eventually scrambled and hacked away from his own goal line by Los Blancos defender Eder Militao.
25 minutes had now elapsed and the Reds were inches away from increasing their lead to 3–1.
It would be their last attacking threat on the Real Madrid goal for 40 minutes.
For 20 minutes there was a red tide sweeping around the fields of Anfield Road and in front of a capacity crowd of 52,337 the Reds had taken a deserved if somewhat fortuitous 2–0 lead. With Liverpool unchanged after two consecutive, season saving wins on the bounce, Real Madrid arrived as newly crowned World Club Champions for the fifth time and save for the absence of Aurelien Tchouameni, fielded their strongest possible starting XI. Being Champions of Europe and indeed the World mattered not a jot in the early exchanges as roared on by a vociferous crowd inside Anfield, the Reds grabbed an early lead. Salah’s pin point cross was deliciously and sublimely flicked past a flatfooted Thibaut Courtois in the Real Madrid goal by an ecstatic Darwin Nunez on 4 minutes. It was a gem of a goal but please don’t discount the chest control on the halfway line and the volleyed pass from Stefan Bajcetic that started the move in the first place. Under pressure, the 18 year old simply scissor kicked a precise, cool pass to captain Henderson, his relay to Salah resulted in a perfect cross for a sublime goal and Liverpool had completely undressed their victors from that infamous Paris final last May.
That Champions League Final will forever be known as the “Courtois Final” as the Belgian shot-stopper repelled everything the Reds had to offer in a barrage of goal attempts that would produce nothing more than frustration amid the jubilation of a goalkeeper demanding we all “put respect” by his name after the final whistle. As an ex Chelsea goalkeeper of many years this self important comment rather stuck in my craw at the time and so I laughed heartily at his gaff that gifted the Reds a second goal on 14 minutes and if karma wasn’t quite as instant as John Lennon would have you believe, it was welcome all the same.
2–0 up and cruising, Vinicius Junior’s goal on 21 minutes was a killer blow and symptomatic of the evening that lay ahead. It was arguably Madrid’s first real attacking foray, a sweeping move from right to left that saw Karim Benzema also arguably get his first touch of the ball all evening and after a quick exchange with the eventual goal scorer, Vinicius Junior whipped a brilliant shot into the far corner of the Reds goal, leaving Alisson Becker flailing helplessly at thin air. The young Brazilian, who along with Thibaut Courtois broke Liverpool Red hearts last May, squeezed his game changing shot through a gaggle of Fabinho, Joe Gomez and Virgil van Dijk, all of whom were a yard slow in closing down and from a real position of strength, the Reds wilted under a now all white attacking tide. A Luka Modric corner on the half hour almost led to an exact replica goal for his Brazilian team-mate as he forced his countryman in the Liverpool goal to pull off a fantastic flying save to deny him, but then, in that karmic, mystical fashion only a European night at Anfield can seem to conjure, Becker’s casual, arguably thoughtless clearance re-bounded off his countryman and high into the roof of his net, and the teams were level at 2–2 with 9 first half minutes remaining.
Had it not been for an incredible last ditch tackle and clearance from Andy Robertson to deny Federico Valverde on the cusp of half-time (and after a flowing move from goalkeeper Courtois through to Vinicius Junior, back to front in the blink of a footballing eye), the Reds could have entered the break trailing and all after sweeping away the European Champions for 20 thrilling first half minutes.
Act Two: A Modric Masterclass
After imploring the Reds to “Attack, Attack, Attack Attack Attack” in that glorious footballing chant of yore, the stark and honest truth is that they barely threatened the goal of the self important giant in the Real Madrid goal, with substitute Roberto Firmino’s tame header on 69 minutes being the only time the Reds forced Courtois into any meaningful second half action. Rather the Reds self destructed and imploded under the weight of a masterclass from the ageless Luka Modric and by the time of Firmino’s header (which he should have scored from), his team were already trailing 5–2 and badly, badly second best.
Joe Gomez commenced a second half of football he’ll want to forget in a hurry with a clumsy tackle that regardless of its legitimacy, didn’t need to be made. A needless free-kick so close to the penalty area became a drilled cross through a completely static Liverpool defence for the bullet header of Eder Militao and 2 minutes into the second half, the Reds were behind and the all white of Los Blancos would soon be out of sight. Urged on by the pass master Modric in the middle of the park, Madrid now pressed high and with two yards further intensity and quickness than in the first half and Modric, so anonymous in the first period of play, now orchestrating the Reds defensive demise. 3–2 became 4–2 with the Reds lazily lacking any defensive organisation and unable to clear their defensive lines on 55 minutes. Benzema swapped passes with Rodrygo before seeing his tame shot deflect off Joe Gomez to compound his misery and past a helpless Alisson Becker once more in the Reds goal, before a goal of real quality demonstrated the gulf in experience and quality between the two teams.
Trent Alexander-Arnold’s in field throw in to Fabinho was quickly wrestled free and stolen by Luka Modric. Striding through the centre of the park, the veteran Croatian legend held off the challenge from Stefan Bajcetic before releasing Vinicius Junior on the left edge of the penalty area. Ostensibly now a 3v3, attack v defence exercise, the Brazilian released Benzema who immediately cut inside the advancing challenge of Alisson Becker from the Reds goal before, with 3 Liverpool defenders having retreated to guard their goal, the French marksman simply swept his effort into the “postage stamp” of the top corner of the Reds net.
From 2–0 up and cruising on 14 minutes, to 5–2 down with a quarter of this 1st Leg still to play. It was a rather humbling 50 minutes or so of watching what my beloved Liverpool Reds have inflicted upon teams all over Europe these past handful of glorious years. High pressing squeezing of the play into the opponents half of the field and when the game is occasionally stretched, break at speed with a clinical eye for a goal.
The European race isn’t run, not yet.
But it’s all but over.
Act Three: A couple of Champion managers reflect
“I really think everything was pretty obvious tonight; I think we gave all five goals away and that means we could have done better there, but they were all obviously different. The start in the game, in our situation where we are, it is really important that we see positive steps — and I think the first half was, besides the two goals we conceded, the best we’ve played for probably the whole season. I liked it a lot. OK, the second goal, we cannot defend better because it is a slapstick moment, but it equalled pretty much our second goal that we scored. The first goal we conceded we have to defend better, there were enough players around, nobody puts a foot in and stuff like this. It’s very tight and it is just a world-class moment from Vinicius then as well, but I think it is obvious we can defend it better”.
“…and then we start with conceding the third goal, which was a horrible goal and today it was pretty much the game-changer. We lost the momentum in that moment and never really got it back. In the first half we could have scored a third one, we had our moments, we were a bit unlucky with the scrappy situation in the six-yard box. In the second half, the game was the game Real Madrid wanted to play. Both of the other goals they scored, one is deflected and they are not really well defended, to be honest. We lose the ball in the wrong moment, which is obviously a massive problem against Real Madrid with the counter-attacking threat they have and that’s how it came to the result. That’s it”.
“Tonight, with the 5–2 and you see the game, they are pretty good in counter-attacking and we have to score three goals there and take some risk, so that could be a bit tricky. It is really not even in my mind. We go there, I can say it now already, and try to win the game. If that is possible or not, I don’t know now but that’s what we will try and from there we will see”.
Jurgen Klopp, courtesy of www.liverpoolfc.com
“Unbelievable. For the start, the start was really difficult and really complicated and we don’t lose our mind and stay focussed on the game. Difficult game, really, really difficult the first part, but slowly, slowly we were back in the game, taking more control at the back and really dangerous in the front. Every time we released from the pressure of Liverpool we were really dangerous”.
“I have to say that Liverpool is a really, really difficult team to play against because they have a lot of intensity, they put a lot of pressure, they press really strong and we had a lot of difficulty in the first half. So out of respect for them I am sure we have to fight and sacrifice also in Madrid. It’s not decided yet. There is still qualification and we have to stay focussed”.
“We are at an advantage as we played really well tonight, but it’s only 90 minutes. We have to be ready and prepared for the other 90 minutes”.
Carlo Ancelotti, courtesy of www.btsport.com
Thanks for reading. There is a wealth of past and present articles on Liverpool FC within my library here or alternatively, here are my three most recently published articles from this season:
The crazy chaos of the Premier League! But the Reds grab all 3 points
Newcastle United 0 Liverpool 2, 18th February 2023.medium.com
Derby delight for Liverpool as the Reds drop the Blues
Liverpool 2 Everton 0, 13th February 2023.medium.com
Hungry Wolves devour a defenceless Reds
Wolves 3 Liverpool 0, 4th February 2023.medium.com