Outside Anfield, the fireworks sputtered and died in the teeming rain. Inside Anfield, it was a place for the rocket’s red glare and bombs bursting in air. It was a place of roars and frenzy and chanting for Stevey Heighway on the wing and for Conor Bradley, for heroes old and new. It was raw and it was visceral.
And when it was done and the mighty Real Madrid had been vanquished and this old stadium had delivered another passion play on another memorable European night under the lights, Liverpool’s season felt alive again, alive with possibility and hope and ambition.
The rocket came from Alexis Mac Allister a bullet of a header that whizzed past the head of Thibault Courtois so fast and so furiously that he did not even have time to duck. It was a goal that was a fitting way to gild a Liverpool performance that revived memories of the relentlessness of the Jurgen Klopp era.
It was not a happy return to English shores for Jude Bellingham, who gave away the free kick that led to Mac Allister’s goal and spent most of the night in the shadow of the Argentine and, particularly, Ryan Gravenberch, who was the game’s best player.
It was not the kind of performance from Bellingham that demands inclusion in Thomas Tuchel’s England squad for the games against Serbia and Albania, which will be announced on Friday. Bellingham’s pedigree suggests he should be in the party but the issue is complicated by the troubled relationship between him and Tuchel.
This was not the triumphant return he would have hoped would seal the deal. Instead, it was Liverpool’s night, a night that put behind them their recent troubles. So much for four Premier League defeats in a row and the sudden vulnerability that afflicted them.
Alexis Mac Allister’s bulleted strike proved the difference on another memorable European night for Liverpool
Amid a sticky patch of form the hosts kept a valuable clean sheet and denied Real Madrid at a raucous Anfield
This victory may draw a line under that. It will certainly leave them in good heart for their visit to the Etihad where they play Manchester City on Sunday in another battle of the giants.
Before this game, Liverpool had only won one of their last nine meetings with Madrid and it felt as if this one meant even more to Anfield because their former hero, Trent Alexander-Arnold, made a ten-minute cameo appearance late in the game.
Alexander-Arnold’s entrance, in place of Arda Guler, was met with a deafening crescendo of boos and the singing of names of those players who stayed loyal to the club. Steven Gerrard’s name was sung prominently.
The build-up to the game had been taut with the tension of the return of Alexander-Arnold, once a hero here and now reviled by some because he was out of contract when he moved to Real Madrid and Liverpool did not receive a fee for him.
The antipathy towards him betrayed itself in different ways. A mural close to the ground that celebrates him and his local roots was defaced before the game. ‘Adios el rata,’ a scrawled message on it said.
Inside the ground, Alexander-Arnold was on the bench for the first 80 minutes so opportunities to boo him were limited. Instead, the Liverpool fans sung the praises of his replacement, Conor Bradley, to the heavens. It was a loaded message.
It was a big night for other Liverpool players, too. It is a strange thing when picking a player who cost £116m in the summer and is as supremely gifted as Florian Wirtz is seen as a gamble but that is how many interpreted his reintroduction to the starting line-up.
Wirtz was left out of the side at the weekend when Liverpool finally seemed to rediscover their mojo in the victory over Aston Villa but Arne Slot chose to pick him ahead of Cody Gakpo in the only change from that win.
Trent Alexander-Arnold started his return to Anfield from the bench amid a hail of boos
The defender was eventually brought on for a brief 10-minute cameo in the final minutes
Jude Bellingham had a difficult return to English soil as he struggled to prove his credentials for his national team coach
Liverpool will be cheered by the confidence boosting win as they prepare to take on Man City
Wirtz is clearly a wonderful player but he has struggled with the physicality and the relentlessness of the Premier League and it may have been that Slot felt the rhythm of a Champions League encounter with Real Madrid might have been a better showcase for his talents.
In the hurly-burly of Anfield en fete, Liverpool made the first chance. Wirtz shoved Dean Huijsen off the ball near the Madrid goalline and played the ball back to Dominik Szoboszlai. Szoboszlai fed it perfectly into the path of Alexis Mac Allister but Mac Allister leaned back and lifted his shot high over the bar.
He was furious with himself because he knew it was a fine opportunity. A couple of minutes later, Bellingham laid a similarly inviting pass to Kylian Mbappe and Mbappe did exactly what Mac Allister had done from the same range. He, too, slapped his hands together in anger.
Then, midway through the half, Liverpool should have scored. Wirtz burst free down the right and squared the perfect pass to Szoboszlai. Szoboszlai tried to lift his shot over Thibault Courtois but Courtois was out like lightning and blocked the shot.
Courtois has thwarted Liverpool before, of course, most notably in the 2022 Champions League final in Paris, when he was unbeatable. He reproduced that in the first half, saving brilliantly again from Szoboszlai with a one-handed parry and then denying Mac Allister.
Real Madrid’s decorated goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois was a perpetual thorn in the hosts’ side
Florian Wirtz has been struggling in the Premier League but his manager believes he has the rhythm needed for Europe
Arne Slot is getting closer to getting his season back on track after two back-to-back wins
Five minutes later, Liverpool thought they had a penalty when a shot from Szoboszlai hit Aurelien Tchouameni as he flung himself in the way of it at close range. The ball hit Tchouameni’s trailing arm and replays showed the contact was in the area. Unhappily, VAR also persuaded referee Istvan Kovacs that the contact did not constitute handball. No penalty.
Just before half-time, Bellingham, who had played well without standing out, squared up Ibrahima Konate in the Liverpool box, took the ball past him and rifled a left-foot drive at goal. This time, it was Giorgi Mamardashvili’s turn to shine. He blocked the shot with his foot.
The second half began much as the first had progressed – with Courtois’ brilliance denying the hosts. First he produced a magnificent reaction save to tip over a header from Virgil van Dijk and then, a minute later, he tipped over another header from Hugo Ekitike.
Bellingham was struggling to make an impact and in the 60th minute, he gave away the free kick that led to Liverpool’s opener. He chased after Ryan Gravenberch, as he had for much of the game, and then chopped him down on the edge of the box. He was booked for the tackle.
Szoboszlai took the free kick and whipped it in with pace and intent and accuracy. Mac Allister ran on to it and met it with a bullet header from six yards out. Not even Courtois could get in the way this time.
