2 weeks Ago By The Straits Times
Liverpool's Alexis Mac Allister celebrates after the Reds beat Real Madrid 2-0 in the Champions League. LONDON – Arne Slot expressed relief on Nov 27 that Liverpool had finally managed to beat Real Madrid for the first time in 15 years, but stressed he was not getting carried away by his team’s perfect start in the Champions League. Second-half goals from Alexis Mac Allister and Cody Gakpo gave the Reds a deserved 2-0 home win in a dominant performance against the Champions League holders whom they last beat in 2009.
“You know how special it is to play against a team that has won the Champions League so many times. They were a pain for Liverpool for many years too,” said a delighted Slot, whose team have now won five out of five in Europe’s elite club competition this season. “I think it’s always good to win a game, and especially a big game like this, because you face so many quality players.
We are only five games into the new format, we are happy where we are, but we’re not getting carried away.” With his team top of both the Champions League and the Premier League, Slot has made an astonishing start since replacing Jurgen Klopp, adding more solidity at the back and control in midfield without sacrificing attacking threat. “I didn’t have a schedule in terms of the amount of points I wanted.
You want to implement the playing style as soon as possible. That is not difficult because it wasn’t that different to Jurgen’s,” he added. The Dutchman was also full of praise for Conor Bradley, who brought the Anfield crowd to their feet with a fantastic first-half tackle against Kylian Mbappe, and of Caoimhin Kelleher who saved a penalty from the Real striker.
Mac Allister echoed his boss’ caution against getting over-confident, downplaying talk of Liverpool now being favourites to win the Champions League. “It is nice but at the same time it means nothing because it is just the first phase,” he said, referring to the new 36-team league format before knockout games begin. “We are happy with our performances, that’s the most important thing and we will keep going.
” Next up for Liverpool are Manchester City on Dec 1 in the Premier League and a chance to open up an 11-point gap with their main domestic rivals. “Man City have not been on the best run at the moment, but what a team,” said Kelleher. “So we’re going to expect a really tough test again and it’s important we keep winning in the (domestic) league as well to keep that gap.
” Over in the Real camp, Mbappe had another subdued and disappointing performance, failing to seriously trouble Liverpool’s defence. The Frenchman has had a challenging start to life at Real after joining from Paris Saint-Germain in June, with just one goal in five Champions League games for the Spanish club. He has scored one goal in his last six games in all competitions but manager Carlo Ancelotti defended him and said he is an “extraordinary” player who just needed support and patience to thrive in Spain.
“It’s a difficult moment for him, we’ve got to support him and give him our love, he’ll soon be fine,” he said. “It could be a lack of confidence maybe. Sometimes you have moments when things aren’t quite working out for you.
But you get through these moments. People miss penalties, it happens a lot. “He works hard, he’s got to keep working hard and fighting.
You get through these moments.” Ancelotti added that Liverpool deserved to win the game. “It was a fair result,” he said.
“They have a really good dynamic, they are switched on, they play with a high intensity.” Even though Real are 24th in the league, and in danger of missing out on the knockout phase, he was also confident their form would pick up sufficiently. “We’ll be there, we’ll be competing in the knockout phase, like in previous years,” the Italian insisted.
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