Arne Slot thrilled as Liverpool beat ‘incredible’ Real Madrid
Arne Slot hailed an impressive victory and performance. Pic: Peter Byrne/PA
Liverpool head coach Arne Slot hailed an impressive performance against an “incredible” Real Madrid after Alexis Mac Allister’s header secured a 1-0 Champions League win.
The hosts’ domination was reflected in the statistics which saw them force Thibaut Courtois, the goalkeeper who broke their hearts in the 2022 final, to make nine saves from a total of 17 attempted shots.
By comparison, a front five of Kylian Mbappe, who had scored in all but two of his matches this season, Vinicius Junior, Jude Bellingham, Arda Guler and Eduardo Camavinga managed just two on target between them.
“Impressive because we played against an incredible side that is in an unbelievable run of form, only lost once, won all the other games,” said Slot, whose team have bounced back from six defeats in seven matches with back-to-back wins for the first time since September.
“If you can win against them but also put in the performance we had that is very positive.
“We had a very bad run of form in terms of results, no excuse in the world can make up for us losing so many games, but we had to play a lot of games in a small amount of time.”
Right-back Conor Bradley had an impressive game against Vinicius, having done similarly a year ago against Mbappe in this fixture.
“Conor was outstanding, last season he was outstanding against Real Madrid,” Slot added.
“Here, three days after Aston Villa (on Sunday) he was against Vinicius. Real have 26 goals in La Liga and Mbappe and Vinicius have 24 goal contributions but he defended very well.”
Real boss Xabi Alonso, a former Liverpool midfielder, has now lost in back-to-back seasons at Anfield after being thumped as Bayer Leverkusen coach a year ago.
“I think we competed well. We played with a good rhythm,” said the Spaniard, whose side’s 100 per cent Champions League record was ended after four matches.
“What we lacked was to hurt them in the final third. It was just small details.
“We conceded lots of fouls, Thibaut Courtois wasn’t able to save that header from a set-piece and it was difficult for us today but I am not going to complain about my team, we gave it a good go.
“We need to view this as an isolated defeat. We competed well; we were equal to them. We’ll learn from it.”
Former Liverpool defender Trent Alexander-Arnold, who had been booed all night, came off the bench in the final 10 minutes but could not affect the game with his every touch jeered.
“It could be expected. He is professional and mature so he was ready for that,” said Alonso.
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