Liverpool’s Alexis McAllister sealed the win with a second-half winner. A hard-fought 1-0 win Against Real Madrid in a battle between European giants at Anfield, Madrid had goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois to thank for keeping the scoreline low.
Trent Alexander-Arnold He received a hostile reception when he returned to Liverpool as a late substitute on Tuesday and the home crowd roared at the Reds in what could be a turning point in their season.
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The two teams are now tied on nine points from the opening four matches in the league stage.
Liverpool had lost six of their last eight games in all competitions, but stopped the rot Beat Aston Villa On Saturday, Arne Slott adopted a more tried and true team selection.
Florian Wirtz replaced Cody Gakpo at the weekend and Liverpool once again looked like the side that reached the Premier League title last season.
Madrid have lost just twice in 20 games since former Liverpool favorite Xabi Alonso took over, but it was up to Courtois to avoid a scoreline similar to their previous defeat this season – 5-2 at Atletico Madrid.
The Belgian broke Liverpool’s heart when the two sides combined for a man-of-the-match display in the 2022 Champions League final, as Los Blancos won 1-0 in Paris.
Courtois’ busy night began when Wirtz teed up Dominik Szoboszlai, who failed to beat the former Chelsea stopper from point-blank range.
Madrid were then relieved by a VAR review which ruled that Aurelien Choumeni’s hand was in a natural position as the Frenchman blocked a shot into his own box.
Courtois was once again tested by Zboszlai’s thunderbolt as Liverpool pushed for the opener.
Kylian Mbappe spurned the visitors’ best chance to equalize with a volley from the edge of the box.
Mbappe’s dazzling form has been a major reason for Madrid’s strong start to the campaign. The French striker had failed to score just twice in his last 17 games for club and country.
It took 45 minutes for Madrid’s star-studded forward line to muster a shot on target, when Jude Bellingham won a clear inside the box and Giorgi Mamardashvili had a low effort blocked with his feet.
Courtois continued to deny Slott’s men in a blistering start to the second half as he parried away powerful headers from Virgil van Dijk and Hugo Ekitike before denying Szoboszlai once more from a free kick.
It took the English champions an hour, but in the end, Mack Allister powered in a header from Szoboszlai’s free kick to defeat the giant Madrid number one.
Alexander-Arnold was met by a chorus of boos after nine minutes to make his first appearance since September 16 following a hamstring injury. A mural of Alexander-Arnold near Anfield was vandalized within hours of the game.
Vinicius Junior, meanwhile, was well marshalled by Alexander-Arnold’s one-time deputy Canor Bradley as the Spanish giants failed to score for the first time this season.
Courtois produced one last good stop from Gakpo to ensure a nervy finale, but Liverpool’s much-vaunted defense held on for their first Champions League clean sheet of the season.
“It was a good game against a really good team,” McAllister told Amazon Prime after the game.
“It’s an important win, but we know that it doesn’t mean anything because we finished first in the first (stage) of the Champions League last season, and then, we got out very quickly. So we need to move on.”
Courtois said Madrid needed to play better and with more patience, saying they made too many mistakes around the penalty area.
“A match like this is decided by small details, but we need to do well against big teams away from home,” he said.
Elsewhere, Bayern Munich underlined their identity as early Champions League favorites by making it 16 wins from 16 games this season, beating Paris Saint-Germain 2-1 away, with Luis Diaz scoring twice and being shown a red card on Tuesday.
The Colombia winger struck twice on the stroke of half-time before Achraf Hakimi was sent off for a violent tackle.
PSG, who reduced the arrears through Joao Neves, regained possession after the break, but failed to make it fully count and suffered their first defeat in the competition since the second leg of last season’s quarter-final against Aston Villa.
Tottenham also had their goalscorer sent off, as Brennan Johnson saw red after scoring their opener, but still secured a 4-0 win against Copenhagen.
Elsewhere, Atletico Madrid beat Union Saint-Gilois 3-1, Juventus drew 1-1 with Sporting, Olympiakos and PSV drew 1-1 and Monaco beat Bodo/Glimt 1-0.
Earlier, Arsenal beat Slavia Prague 3-0 and Napoli were held to a goalless draw by Eintracht Frankfurt.