On a night when Real Madrid’s galácticos were brought crashing down to Earth at Anfield for a second straight season, only the most dedicated Madridista would have bothered sifting through the wreckage for positives.
A tip of the hat, then, to Marca, who managed to make Real goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois the focus of Wednesday’s front page despite Liverpool’s 1-0 Champions League victory. “Courtois can’t handle everything,” blared the Madrid-based publication’s headline, alongside a picture of the stopper striving in vain to keep out Alexis Mac Allister’s match-winning header.
“The Belgian goalkeeper kept his team in the game until the goal with several outstanding saves,” declared Marca, before adding: “It was the second defeat of the season for a Real Madrid side that repeated the mistakes of the derby,” a reference to September’s 5-2 league defeat by city rivals Atlético.
“If the defeat was limited to just one goal, it was thanks to Courtois, who was reminiscent of the one in the Saint-Denis final, when he tormented Liverpool,” wrote columnist Alfredo Relaño. “That day, Vinicius scored the lone goal; this time it was Mac Allister.”
A sceptic could be forgiven for wondering whether, in focusing on the performance of Courtois, Marca was tacitly attempting to mitigate the disappointment of its readers, not least by evoking memories of Real’s victory over Liverpool in the 2022 Champions League final at the Stade de France.
‘Liverpool’s nightmare is two metres tall’
Not unpredictably, AS pursued a similar line. “Courtois was left alone,” declared the headline, this time beneath an image of the Belgium international – whom the Madrid publication hailed as “the best goalkeeper in the world” – denying Dominik Szoboszlai from close range. Suggesting that only the heroics of Courtois stood between Real and a far worse result, the accompanying report applauded the 33-year-old’s obduracy while acknowledging his resistance could not last forever.
“Liverpool’s nightmare is almost two metres tall,” wrote AS of a match that, in reality, will have left few on the red half of Merseyside afflicted by bad dreams. “Three consecutive corners were dealt with by Courtois, who made two spectacular saves from headers by [Virgil] Van Dijk and [Hugo] Ekitiké, plus a third headed by the Frenchman that he parried onto the post.
“Madrid was caught in the derby spiral: disoriented, withdrawn, with little desire to fight for loose balls. It seemed they would only last as long as Courtois could. And the Belgian couldn’t handle it all. The fourth header was lethal. Szoboszlai, the star of the match, controlled the ball, and Mac Allister headed it home imposingly.”
Elsewhere there was little attempt to sugarcoat the outcome. “Real crash,” declared the Barcelona-based newspaper Sport; “KO Blanco,” announced Mundo Deportivo, likewise based in Catalonia, adding that Madrid were “thoroughly outclassed by a dominant Liverpool”.
European newspapers say Real Madrid ‘lacked conviction’
“The English team won nearly every duel, and for the second time this season (after the game at the Metropolitano), Madrid were clearly outplayed, offering a very poor performance,” reported Mundo Deportivo, adding that Real “dominated possession but lacked conviction”.
Alonso’s side did indeed have the ball more than not, limiting Liverpool to just 39% possession, but the home side had more touches in the opposition box – 29 to 25 – as well as 17 shots to Madrid’s eight and and a superior xG (2.58 to 0.45).
As Mundo Deportivo summed up: “Liverpool managed their lead like a true powerhouse, maintaining control until the final whistle. They took all three points in a match that could mark another turning point for Real Madrid – still unable to impose their dominance against Europe’s elite.”
