It was a night where two of the most successful clubs in the top tier of European club football, 14-time champion Real Madrid and six-time winner Liverpool taking on each other at Anfield, England for the 2022/2023 UEFA Champions League Round of 16 first leg. The meeting is the fourth in three seasons for both sides, and the home side was determined to rewrite the history book as it had lost to the Spanish La Liga powerhouse five out of the previous six match-ups, with the last win came in the 2008/2009 Season.
Kop Took an Early Two-Goal Lead
Jürgen Klopp’s men came into the game eager to bag a hat-trick of wins in all competitions, having defeated Everton in the Merseyside derby at home and overcome the then Premier League four-placed Newcastle United last weekend. The 55-year-old German manager made no changes to his side that emerged victorious against Magpies while Carlo Ancelotti altered his Real Madrid squad with the return of captain Karim Benzema and Spaniard Dani Carvajal.
Liverpool started the game with superb attacking plays, and soon was rewarded with the opening goal, when the Champions League joint-top scorer of the season, Mohamed Salah delivered a tempting cross for his strike partner Darwin Núñez to score. The Uruguayan cheekily sent the ball into the back of the net with a backheel flick, giving the home side the lead. Ten minutes later, a disastrous error from Thibaut Courtois in his own penalty box gave the ball away for the charging Salah to score his 19th goal of the season. The Egypt national captain’s eight goal in the competition meant he has eclipsed Paris Saint-Germain’s Kylian Mbappé as the top scorer.
Mo Salah gets his revenge against Real Madrid ⚔️ pic.twitter.com/s4nQDleonC
— B/R Football (@brfootball) February 21, 2023
Los Blancos Roared Back with Five
Kop definitely made its presence felt in the opening 20 minutes, but the defending UEFA Champions League champion was not going to give up just like that. In the 21st minute, Brazil’s Vinícius Júnior pulled one back for the visitors, when his shot from the left side of the penalty box found the bottom right corner of the goal. Nine minutes before the half-time whistle, the 22-year-old forward intercepted a pass from Alisson Becker and the ball was neatly fell into the goal, allowing Real Madrid restore things to balance before the next half.
The second 45 minutes were almost all Los Blancos’ emphatic display of football skills on the pitch. They wasted no time to take their first lead of the match, when an unmarked Éder Militão scored from a freekick set-piece 115 seconds after the restart. Real then doubled its lead eight minutes later, when Frenchman Benzema linked up with another Brazilian forward Rodrygo on the right corner and hit the ball with his left foot. The strike was not a solid one, but a huge deflection from the Liverpool backline saw the ball creep over the line.
The men in white showed why they are a 14-time champion in this contest with their devastating attack, and added their fifth goal of the evening, when a determined Luka Modrić broke away from his own half into enemy territory, before Vinícius Júnior letting go his chance of scoring a hat-trick for his captain to complete his brace. The goal increased Benzema’s season tally to 18 in all competitions.
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Klopp: “Ancelotti Thinks the Tie Is Over.”
After the match, Liverpool manager Klopp expressed that the tie remains alive despite the 5-2 riot by the visitors. He also believed that the opposing manager Ancelotti thinks otherwise, which will be an advantage for Kop, when they travel to face Real again in Madrid three weeks from now. He said: “I think Carlo thinks the tie is over – and I think it as well in the moment. But in three weeks… the closer you get to the game the bigger our chances become and the less likely it is the tie is over.”
Ancelotti, who won four UEFA Champions League titles as a manager, hailed his Brazilian striker Vinícius Júnior’s sheer brilliance in the match, calling him the “Most decisive player in the world”. He also reminded his team not to drop off its momentum in the second leg of this fixture, stating that the side has to “Manage the 90 minutes in Madrid” as well.
