Liverpool and Real Madrid, one of the great Champions League duels in recent years, meet again, this time at Anfield, in the fifth game of the league. Madrid has beaten the ‘reds’ in two very recent finals (2018) and (2022) and in the last eight games between them the balance is seven white victories and one draw, but now the tables seem to have changed.
Liverpool is the only team that has won all four of its games in this new Champions League format and is the outstanding leader of the Premier. Madrid, on the other hand, appears full of patches with important losses, the latest none other than that of Vinícius, in addition to others such as Rodrygo Goes, Carvajal, Tchouaméni or Militão, all of them holders of having been well.
Ancelotti’s team
He is not doing well but he has won his last two games
Madrid has recovered in its last two games by beating Osasuna and Leganés, but we must not forget that it is not doing well. In his last two games against important rivals he was beaten, in the classic (0-4) and against Milan (1-3).
At Anfield there is a lot of desire for revenge. Jürgen Klopp is no longer there but the desire is the same. And in his history there are also exploits against Madrid. Not in vain is it one of the three teams that can boast of having beaten the whites in a Champions League final (Paris, 1981) and in its career there are also humiliating victories, the 4-0 in 2009, when the president at the time, Vicente Boluda, predicted “a trickle.”
For Madrid, today’s game is more important because they have already lost two in this group. A new defeat would make it difficult for them to finish in the top eight.
Liverpool
Salah complains about not having renewed
Liverpool also has casualties: Alisson Becker, Chiesa, Diogo Jota and Alexander-Arnold, wanted by Madrid, will not play. Also worrying is the situation of its star, the Egyptian Moh Salah, who at 32 years old has not renewed and the other day said that he sees himself “more outside than inside.”
The Reds’ new coach, the Dutchman Arne Slot, was very complimentary of the rival, Madrid, who won 2-5 the last time they played at Anfield: “I didn’t know we had played against them so many times. I used that game, the 2-5, against Feyenoord as an example because Madrid always finds a way. It’s what makes them so special. It is what has made them the best team in the world in the last five or ten years,” Slot said at a press conference.
Ancelotti looked upset when asked why he had not changed Vinícius sooner. “I have coached 1,300 games and made 4,000 substitutions. “No one can give me advice.” When Ancelotti looks nervous or uneasy, Madrid has reasons to worry.
the star
Mbappé is finally looking for a great performance
Without Vinícius, Madrid has its hopes pinned on Mbappé, who will finally be able to play the entire game without the Brazilian’s presence on the left. Everything indicates that his partner at the top will be Brahim. For Mbappé it may finally be the day to establish himself in Madrid, the complete opposite of what happened in the classic. Few venues in Europe have the mystique of Anfield, although the current Champions League format does not turn the match into a life or death duel.
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