Agency :
Liverpool’s Alexis Mac Allister headed a second-half winner as the hosts earned a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Real Madrid in a battle between European giants on Tuesday, handing the LaLiga leader its first defeat in the Champions League this season.
Arne Slot’s men climbed to sixth in the table with nine points after four games of the league stage, one place below Real, which is level on points but leads on goal difference.
Liverpool, which three days earlier halted a dreadful four-game Premier League losing streak, battled from the start and kept Real goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois on his toes before Mac Allister finally broke the deadlock in the 61st minute.
Dominik Szoboszlai, who was outstanding all night, sent in a beautiful free kick, and the Argentine rose the highest to head home and send Anfield into raptures.
Liverpool briefly celebrated what it thought was a penalty in the first half when Szoboszlai blasted the ball off the arm of Aurelien Tchouameni, but the referee decided there had been no handball after a VAR review.
“I think it was a good game against a really good team,” Mac Allister told Amazon Prime. “(Courtois) is a fantastic keeper – we all know. He had a few saves, so again I think he’s a really good keeper but today I think we were better and deserved to win.”
Szoboszlai had several terrific chances on the night.
Courtois stopped what might have been a simple tap-in of Florian Wirtz’s cross when he threw up a leg to stop Szoboszlai’s shot in the first half. The Hungarian forced a couple more diving saves from Courtois before halftime.
Real’s best chance before the break was Jude Bellingham’s shot from a tight angle that lunging Liverpool keeper Giorgi Mamardashvili got a foot on.
Kylian Mbappe squandered a great chance for Real in the second half when he fired wide of the far post.
Liverpool looked sure to go 2-0 up in the dying minutes when Mo Salah found Cody Gakpo in front of goal, but Courtois made another brilliant save and Salah’s follow-up was blocked.
Former long-time Liverpool player Trent Alexander-Arnold, who departed for Real in the close season, was a late substitute and was booed mercilessly whenever he touched the ball.
“We came here to try to win,” Federico Valverde told Spanish broadcaster Movistar Plus. “It’s a very difficult pitch, they press hard, we had chances and so did they, and we dropped three points because of a set piece that we need to defend better.”
