Anfield is a fortress. Some of the best teams have gone there and crumbled. From Barcelona a couple years ago to one of the best Man City sides in the 2017/18 season where Liverpool thumped them 5-1 on aggregate. The crowd always turns up for a European night and the players match their supporters’ energy ninety-nine percent of the time.
Yesterday, Real Madrid traveled to Merseyside to take on The Mighty Liverpool. Los Blancos were without key players Ferland Mendy and Aurelian Tchouameni through injury. While Toni Kroos was only fit enough for the bench. Despite the injuries, Madrid still fielded a strong lineup capable of inflicting pain onto Liverpool.
The Reds had Thiago, Ibrahima Konate and Luis Diaz out with injuries. All 3 of these players were crucial to Klopp’s system and would’ve made a significant difference in the match.
The First Twenty
It’s clear that Liverpool had a tactical scheme of how they wanted to approach the game both defensively and offensively. Their press and counter press were excellent and their quality on the ball and decision making in the final third made it even better. Darwin Nunez opened the scoring 4 minutes into the game and Mo Salah doubled their lead ten minutes later.
The home team was on the ascendancy and Real had a mini mountain to climb with fourteen minutes on the clock.
I don’t think that they were rattled as they’ve experienced multiple “remontadas” before. But the energy from the players and the crowd’s noise made it very difficult for them early on.
Courtois’ mistake signified the impact that Anfield’s atmosphere can have.
Madrid’s turn to show their quality
After the second goal went in, the experienced players in the Madrid squad began to take control of the game. The likes of Modric, Benzema and Rudiger started to take the game by the scruff of the neck and made things tick.
Their efforts were rewarded after Vini Jr curled one past Alisson Becker in the twenty first minute. A world class finish from an incredibly talented footballer.
Alisson gifted Vini and Madrid their second goal of the night and they went into the locker rooms tied at two all.
Madrid would’ve been pleased with their reaction but aware of the need to be sharper with the passes and decision making.
The Second Half
That second half performance was one of the best performances I’ve seen at Anfield. Madrid completely took the life out of Liverpool and made their press and players look average.
Image Credit: Antonio Villalba
The passing, movement and energy were nothing short of top class.
There was a period in the match where the Liverpool players seemed to stop trying to win the ball as they were quickly dispossessed due to the counter press of “The Whites.”
Liverpool are on a terrible run of form at the moment and are struggling with confidence, continuity and overall quality in their squad and performances. Regardless of that, Leeds were the only team to win at Anfield this season. Which shows the difficulty of that task.
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