Liverpool suffer worst-ever home defeat in Europe as Real Madrid run riot
By Sam Wallace at Anfield
There was just one goal between them in the final in Paris nine months ago, as the two great sides of European football of the moment, but the game changes so quickly and on Tuesday night Liverpool felt lost somewhere in their past, reaching out for a moment just beyond their grasp.
This was such a demolition that by the end it was jarring to recall that Jürgen Klopp’s team had led by two goals after 14 frantic opening minutes. What followed was a great Real Madrid performance pegged somewhere between the passing of one era and the dawning of another at this club where the succession is in good hands.
There was Luka Modric at 37, still the orchestrator of a powerful force, and Karim Benzema with two second-half goals. Then there was the skill and edge of Vinicius Jnr with two more, and the dominant Eduardo Camavinga.
It will take a very good team to stop Real from capturing the 15th of their titles in European football’s leading competition this season, and in their current state, it was clear to all that Liverpool are not that team. They had restored something of the season’s momentum with two successive wins in the Premier League but then came this heavy defeat that again asked questions as to what it is that is coming after Klopp’s great five-year cycle.
They must wait three weeks to bring this tie to a conclusion and it will hang over them in the four crucial Premier League games that fall in the interim. There may be some drama to come at the Bernabéu on March 15 but by the end it felt done: a scoreline more akin to the aggregate than simply half a tie.
There felt like a whole two legs of excitement packed into the first half. Whole Champions League group stages have passed with fewer incidents. This was underpinned by two teams who attacked with confidence but seemed to have none of it left over for the defending.
Real were beautifully fluent in possession, directed by the magnificent Modric whom the casual observer might assume leaves the running to his two young midfield companions, Camavinga and Federico Valverde – but that is not the case. Modric does his share of the graft. Real looked dangerous every time they went forward, and they needed to be after quickly falling two goals down.
It was a fierce opening 20 minutes with Klopp’s players approaching it as if they pulled one of last season’s Champions League performances off the shelf and decided that this would be the theme instead. The recent mediocre performances in the Premier League, notwithstanding wins in their past two games, were forgotten. It was frantic and a little ragged but very effective.
The first goal was classic surging Liverpool riding the crest of the European night mood – the great discordant force that has so often overwhelmed opposition. Darwin Nunez finished with a flick off the inside of his heel. Andy Robertson to Mohamed Salah and then the cross at the near post. It was all over before Thibaut Courtois had even set himself for the ball into the area.
The great Belgian, such a decisive factor in Paris last May when the two sides faced each other in the final, had worse to come. It was a notably firm backpass that Dani Carvajal struck at him and came amid a period when players on both sides were losing their footing unexpectedly.
Indeed, Camavinga had done so in the turnover of possession that had taken the ball into the Real half. Courtois needed a touch to control the pass and he could not keep his feet. Salah took the ball and scored the goal that makes him Liverpool’s record goalscorer in European football, passing Steven Gerrard’s 41.
This was one of the great Salah nights when a full-back is demolished, although this was by no means any full-back – the great Austria international David Alaba, who would go off before half-time with an injury.
Real have the Ballon d’Or winner in their attack and yet it was not Benzema who carried the comeback in the first half. That was the Brazilian Vinicius, who scored a magnificent first after 21 minutes, twisting away from the red shirts in the area, getting the return pass and dispatching a right-foot shot past Alisson. Liverpool’s Brazilian goalkeeper made another fine save from Vinicius before Real’s second in the 36th minute.
It came from an unusual mistake by Alisson, one of the great mainstays of the Klopp era. Stefan Bajcetic, the Spanish teenager, lost the ball deep in the Real half and Valverde got it forward quickly, although not accurately enough that Gomez could not steer it back to Becker. His clearance was clattered against Vinicius and bounced back past the goalkeeper and into his net.
The third Real goal came soon after half-time, headed in under no pressure by Eder Militao from Modric’s crisply struck free-kick deep on the left. Benzema’s first followed after a sharp exchange with Vinicius that left Liverpool flat-footed, and a shot that defeated Alisson with a deflection off Joe Gomez. The last was a beautiful move in which Liverpool were second every time.
Modric took the ball off Fabinho in midfield and then slipped easily past Bajcetic. Vinicius indulged himself for a few seconds and then cut the ball back to Benzema, who did the necessary. It was no surprise – Real had looked like they might score every time they had the ball.
As for Modric, many of those Liverpool fans who could bear to watch the last 10 minutes applauded the old maestro off when he was substituted late in the game. He deserved every last moment of it.
Liverpool vs Real Madrid: as it happened
Source: telegraph.co.uk