Mac Allister scores as Liverpool beat Real Madrid 1-0 in Champions League

Liverpool’s Alexis Mac Allister headed home a second-half winner as the team earned a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Real Madrid in a battle between European giants at Anfield, with Madrid grateful to goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois for keeping the score down.

Trent Alexander-Arnold was met with a hostile reception on his return to Liverpool as a late substitute on Tuesday, and the home crowd roared the Reds over the line for what could be a turning point in their season.

Both sides are now tied on nine points from their opening four games of the league phase.

Liverpool had lost six of their last eight games in all competitions, but stopped the rot by beating Aston Villa on Saturday, as Arne Slot resorted to a more tried and trusted team selection.

Florian Wirtz replaced Cody Gakpo in the only change from the weekend, and Liverpool again looked more like the side that stormed to the Premier League title last season.

Madrid had lost just twice in 20 games since former Liverpool favourite Xabi Alonso took charge, but relied on Courtois to avoid a similar scoreline to their only previous defeat this season – 5-2 at Atletico Madrid.

The Belgian broke Liverpool hearts when the sides met in the 2022 Champions League final with a man-of-the-match display, as Los Blancos won 1-0 in Paris.

Courtois’s busy night began when Wirtz teed up Dominik Szoboszlai, who failed to beat the former Chelsea stopper from point-blank range.

Madrid were then rescued by a VAR review that deemed that Aurelien Tchouameni’s arm was in a natural position as the Frenchman blocked a shot inside his own box.

Courtois was tested once more by a thunderous Szoboszlai shot as Liverpool pushed for the opener.

Kylian Mbappe spurned the visitors’ best chance to level when he skewed wide from the edge of the box.

Mbappe’s scintillating form has been the major cause for Madrid’s fine start to the campaign. The French striker had only failed to score twice in 17 previous 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 jinked clear inside the box and fired a low effort that Giorgi Mamardashvili blocked with his feet.

Courtois continued to defy Slot’s men in a blistering start to the second half as he clawed 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 finally, the giant Madrid number one was beaten when Mac Allister powered in a header from Szoboszlai’s free kick.

Alexander-Arnold was met by a chorus of boos nine minutes from time, when he entered for his first appearance since September 16 after a hamstring injury. A mural of Alexander-Arnold next to Anfield had been vandalised in the hours before the game.

Vinicius Junior, meanwhile, was well-marshalled by Alexander-Arnold’s one-time deputy, Conor Bradley, as the Spanish giants failed to score for the first time this season.

Courtois produced one last fine stop from Gakpo to ensure a nervy finale, but Liverpool’s much-criticised defence stood firm for their first Champions League clean sheet of the season.

“It was a good game against a really good team,” Mac Allister told Amazon Prime after the game.

“It is an important win, but we know it doesn’t mean anything as we finished first in the first [phase] of the Champions League last season, and after that, we were out quite early. So we need to keep on going.”

Courtois said that Madrid needed to play better and with more composure, adding that they made too many mistakes around the penalty area.

“A match like this is decided by the small details, but we need to get better against big teams away from home,” he said.

Elsewhere, Bayern Munich made it 16 wins from 16 games this season to underline their credentials as early Champions League favourites, beating holders Paris Saint-Germain 2-1 away, as Luis Diaz scored two goals and was shown a red card, on Tuesday.

The Colombian winger struck twice before being sent off for a violent tackle on Achraf Hakimi on the stroke of half-time.

PSG, who reduced the arrears through Joao Neves, dominated possession after the break, but failed to make it fully count, and slipped to their first defeat in the competition since last season’s quarterfinal second leg against Aston Villa.

Tottenham also had their goalscorer sent off, as Brennan Johnson saw red after scoring their opener, but still cruised to a 4-0 win against Copenhagen.

Elsewhere, Atletico Madrid defeated Union Saint-Gilloise 3-1, Juventus fought back for a 1-1 draw with Sporting, Olympiacos and PSV played out a 1-1 draw, and Monaco defeated Bodo/Glimt 1-0.

Earlier, Arsenal cruised to a 3-0 win at Slavia Prague, and Napoli were held to a goalless draw by Eintracht Frankfurt.

Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: aljazeera.com