Liverpool threatened in five-minute spells creating a chance here, a chance there, but never looked like upsetting the Spanish giants.
Mo Salah squandered Liverpool’s best chances and there was no better chance than the one that came to him after two minutes, when he found himself on the penalty spot with just Thibaut Courtois to beat. Nine times out of ten, you would have fancied the Egyptian to score – especially with the ball on his left foot – but a tame effort came off the Madrid keeper’s left foot and went to safety.
It felt like a massive moment in the game. Divock Origi’s early goal in the Barcelona semi two years ago put the frighteners up the Catalans and gave Liverpool the momentum to go on and perform a miracle; but this time there was no such turning point and Madrid instead of suffering a psychological blow were boosted and put themselves in a position to take the sting out of the game, which they did, more or less, for the rest of the first half.
James Milner – captaining the side tonight – had a curling shot saved with a strong hand by Courtois; Wijnaldum and, again, Salah, shot over the bar from inside the box – good chances, which Liverpool needed to take.
Madrid rarely threatened to score an away goal that would’ve put the tie even further beyond Liverpool’s reach, though Karim Benzema’s deflected shot did hit the post.
Liverpool started the second half as they started the first, on the front foot, and created good chances, this time it was Roberto Firmino who found himself in the area but his fierce shot was straight at Courtois, who parried comfortably. Further chances fell to Salah but there was hesitancy and anxiety in his finishing – as there has been all season with Liverpool’s strikers – and no breakthrough accrued.
Diogo Jota and Thiago Alcantara came on after 60 minutes for Ozan Kabak – Fabinho dropped into defence – and Milner; but neither managed to affect the game. Jota had one chance deflected behind, while Thiago gave the ball away or overhit his passes too many times. Unfortunately, the Spanish midfielder in his first season with the Reds, has flattered to deceive and his omission from the starting 11 in such a big game speaks volumes for his indifferent form since arriving.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Xherdan Shaqiri came on for Firmino and Sadio Mané with 10 minutes to go, but made no impact and the game fizzled out, Madrid looking in control, to a goalless draw and Madrid going through to the semis having won 3-1 in the first leg.
Liverpool’s season has only seven games to go, all in the Premier League, with the aim being to finish in the top four. The Reds face Leeds United on Monday.
If England boss Gareth Southgate wanted to make a presentation as to why he dropped Trent Alexander Arnold from his last squad, eliciting much criticism, he would show the video of the Liverpool right-back’s abject performance against Real Madrid in the first leg of Champions League quarter-final.
It was perhaps one of the worst defensive displays ever given by a professional footballer and reminded us of why Jurgen Klopp when he first came to Liverpool refused to play Alexander Arnold in the big games and preferred instead to start with Joe Gomez or James Milner.
Alexander Arnold was at fault for all three Madrid goals – particularly the second – where, inexplicably, he headed the ball into the path of Asensio to score – and the third, when he failed to track the movement of Vinicius Junior in the box allowing the Brazilian to latch onto a pass from Luka Modric and squeeze the ball passed Allison Becker, who should have done better to keep it out.
Usually, Alexander Arnold’s defensive ineptitude is forgiven by his dangerous attacking play, but against Real Madrid so horrible was his defensive display that it seemed to affect all aspects of his game and even his mentality suffered, which descended into petulance.
Ultimately, Klopp will have to make a decision about what to do about the right-back position. He cannot continue to play Alexander Arnold there. He is costing Liverpool goal after goal, game after game. Southgate is not an idiot.
But before Klopp makes a decision about Alexander Arnold, he will need to justify why he persists with Naby Keita and, in particular, why he picked him tonight over Thiago Alcantara.
Keita has had an undistinguished Liverpool career, admittedly blighted by frequent injury, and has at no point suggested he is capable of making the difference at the highest level.
Thiago, on the other hand, while having an indifferent start in a Reds shirt, with Fabinho returning to anchor the midfield, has begun to look like the classy player who can control a game Liverpool bought him for. The fact that Klopp hastily took off Keita on 41 minutes, when Madrid were threatening to add to the two goals they’d already scored, replacing him with Thiago, tells us that Klopp knew he had made a mistake.
Klopp is capable of making these catastrophic mistakes. We recall his insistence on playing Lorius Karius ahead of Simon Mignolet when it was obvious from the start that Karius was a calamitous keeper who was going to cost his team sooner or later; and we recall how Liverpool’s season had to implode before the manager realised that playing midfielders at centre back was destroying the team.
Liverpool’s best player on the night was Gini Wijnaldum and it seems another oversight on the Reds’ part not to have tied the Dutchman down to an extended contract and forcing him to look elsewhere to continue his career.
Real Madrid ended up winning 3-1 and the truth is they were so dominant that they will feel disappointed not to have put the tie to bed, allowing Liverpool a 10-minute period at the start of the second half in which they threatened and Mo Salah scored a scrappy goal that gives the Reds a glimmer of hope for next week’s return at Anfield, even if it's difficult to see how Liverpool can go so quickly from an awful performance to a magical one, especially without 50,000 fans there to make a difference.
There were, however, a couple of newsworthy stories that developed concerning the Reds.
First was Thursday’s announcement by England manager Gareth Southgate that he was omitting Trent Alexander Arnold for England’s upcoming World Cup qualifiers against San Marino, Albania and Poland, citing a recent drop off in form from the Liverpool right-back. Ahead of Alexander Arnold, Southgate chose Manchester City’s Kyle Walker, Chelsea’s Reece James and Atletico Madrid’s Kieran Trippier.
Many expressed shock, surprise, even anger that the England supremo had decided to overlook the Liverpool star; but there is no doubt that one of the reasons for the Reds’ disastrous Premier League form in 2021 has been Alexander Arnold’s failure to improve his defensive play in the absence of Virgil van Dijk, Joel Matip and Joe Gomez, who in the past have all been able to cover for Alexander Arnold’s license to play adventurously and defensive inadequacies.
Now, given that Southgate’s England do not play Liverpool-style rock and roll football and their centre halves – Harry Maguire, Conor Coady, John Stones and Tyrone Mings – are nowhere near in the same class as Liverpool’s and nowhere near good enough to protect their right-back when he goes wandering or doesn’t fulfil his defensive responsibilities, then Southgate’s decision looks quite rational.
On Friday, the draw for the quarter-finals of the Champions League was made and Liverpool came out with a good tie against Real Madrid, with the away game to be played on 6 April and the return leg on 14 April.
Most of the talk after the draw was of Liverpool being given the opportunity to redeem themselves against the Spanish giants for the humiliating defeat they handed the Reds in the final of the competition in 2018, and in particular the chance for Mohammed Salah to exact revenge on Sergio Ramos for the challenge that ended the Egyptian’s game early and set the tone for the calamities that were to come for Liverpool that fateful night.
The truth is, however, that Ramos’ grappling move wasn’t as diabolical as some made out and Salah was just unlucky in the way he fell on his shoulder. The loss to Madrid was a consequence of perhaps the worst goalkeeping display in modern football. Loris Karius was at fault for all three Real goals, including Gareth Bale’s overhead kick, which was in the centre of the goal and, inexplicably, Karius decided to watch into the net, as if mesmerised by Bale’s athleticism and audacity, rather than making the decision to make a straightforward save.
Real Madrid are the last team from Spain left in the competition, giving an indication of the decline in quality of La Liga and, if this were the Liverpool of the last two years, you’d have to have the Reds as strong favourites to go through to the semi finals, where they would meet either Chelsea or Porto.
However, Liverpool have been atrocious these last three months and even their victories in this period have not suggested that the old Liverpool is back. Indeed, how confident can anyone be that Liverpool will progress with their fifth and sixth choice centre backs – Ozan Kabak and Nat Philipps – likely to come up against Karim Benzema and Vinicius Junior? But better Real Madrid at this stage than Bayern Munich, PSG, Man City or Chelsea.
