Alexis Mac Allister found a way past Thibaut Courtois as Liverpool beat Real Madrid
Andy Robertson and several of his Liverpool team-mates could be forgiven for feeling a sense of deja vu watching Thibaut Courtois make a series of brilliant saves at Anfield last night.
Courtois put in a magnificent performance as Real Madrid won the Champions League final in Paris in 2022, denying Jurgen Klopp’s Reds before Vinicius Jr scored the only goal of the game 14 minutes into the second half.
It looked like the Belgian giant would break Liverpool hearts again last night with dominant blocks to keep out a Dominik Szoboszlai shot and a Virgil van Dijk header as the home team pushed for the first goal.
He was finally defeated by a header from Alexis Mac Allister following a free kick from Szoboszlai and Liverpool overcame an exciting match 1-0.
Robertson told Liverpoolfc.com: “Really enjoyable. I’m glad we built on Saturday, trying to get that consistency back.”
“I thought from minute one that we were all there tonight and I carried on from Saturday in terms of being hard to beat, working hard for each other, always trying to help your teammate. Then I thought the quality was there too.
“I thought his ‘guardian’ [Thibaut Courtois] He was outstanding, he obviously managed to keep the score down. We had some great opportunities, especially at the beginning of the second half. But 1-0, a nice night, huge three points for us and now we move on.”
He is an incredible goalkeeper: Robertson praises Courtois
And he added about Courtois: “We have to move on. Probably the boys who played in the final in Paris.” [in 2022] I had a little déjà vu! He is an incredible goalkeeper, exceptional, and always seems to give his best against us.
“He’s really hard to beat, but luckily we kept knocking on the door and we believed that if we kept creating chances, hopefully, we’d eventually knock them down, and luckily Macca came up and scored the goal.
“Then we probably could have scored more, the game really opened up. “So we were defending and playing on the counterattack, which probably suited us well in the last 10 to 15 minutes and, if that last pass was correct, we could have been one-on-one.
“But everyone worked hard today, even the guys who came off the bench also did their part, and [it was] a massive and complete performance today.”
The Reds want consistency before the trip to City
It was Liverpool’s second successive win after Saturday’s defeat to Aston Villa and Robertson hopes they can now show better form after a difficult run.
The Scotland international added: “It’s important now that we have to be consistent – that was the message today before the game, we need to get the game back to consistency, and I think we really achieved that.
“But we have another important game on Sunday. [at Manchester City] and it’s going to be hard. We have already put in a lot of effort this week and it is going to be difficult, but obviously we are going with more confidence than last week, so that is a pleasure.”
