Champions League Insights: Liverpool’s 2-0 Win Over Real Madrid

Liverpool Liverpool top of the league! Not the chant many probably expected to ring round Anfield near full time, but hopefully one we hear Sunday evening too. The reds were dominant and well worth the three points here against European royalty, that even Jude Bellingham admitted afterwards were second best. This is a few worries from this off the pitch, but on it Liverpool were the better team and a 2-0 score line didn’t flatter them even one bit. We look at the lessons learned from a freezing cold Wednesday night at Anfield in the Champions League.

Even The Best Miss Them

A mate said to me on the way home ‘what odds would you have got on them too not scoring, never mind both missing them in that game’. Mbappe has had his critics at Real, but when Robbo’s rashness gave him a chance in the second half you expected him to bury it. However, he hasn’t reckoned on the pure mastery with which Kelleher is commanding his goal at the moment. Salah has rightly had plaudits galore this season and you heard the collective ‘yyyeeeeaaaa….oooohhhhh’ in the same breath from the crowd as he put it well wide. Ronnie Moran used to have a favourite saying for his favourite players like Rushdie when they did that, stating ‘even the best miss them sometimes son’. He’d have applied that to one here.

Irish Eyes Were Smiling

Neither are first-choice for Liverpool, but they delivered a performance that will live long in the memory here. Conor Bradley went through Kylian Mbappe with a tackle that shook his ancestors and brought war cries from all at Anfield, with a clip that will be replayed millions of times. He also got an assist for the goal, was an of the match and could have even got on the scoresheet himself. Nine recoveries and eight duels won tells its own story. Kelleher bailed Robbo out for the penalty and late on when he’d lost Brahim to save from point-blank range and it was great to see him get so much appreciation from team-mates for that pivotal moment. We’re so lucky to have these two in our squad.

Midfield Masterclass

Anfield quite rightly gave Modric a respectful round of applause as he went on and one of the greats probably makes his last bow at this ground. As great as he was, Liverpool had Alexis Mac Allister score a great goal and play ever so well, but the star of the show really was Toxteth’s finest for me. Following up a brilliant performance against Leverkusen, Curtis Jones was magnificent in this one and 93.1% pass accuracy, combined with the most dribbles on the pitch (3) and winning the most duels in midfield (6) said it all. He’s really shining on all these big European nights. Everyone’s starting to realise we have an elite midfielder on our hands.