Carlo Ancelotti admitted that Real Madrid never recovered from one crucial second-half moment in their defeat to Liverpool on Wednesday night.
The Champions League holders are precariously placed in this season’s competition after a third loss out of five, with goals from Alexis Mac Allister and Cody Gakpo putting them to the sword at Anfield.
The Reds were 1-0 to the good when, on the hour mark, the visitors were awarded a penalty after Andy Robertson was adjudged to have fouled Lucas Vazquez, but Caoimhin Kelleher was equal to Kylian Mbappe’s spot kick.
Speaking to reporters after the match, Ancelotti felt that his team lost heart after the Frenchman fluffed his lines from 12 yards and acknowledged that Real Madrid were second best on the night.
The former Everton boss said (via Liverpool Echo): “To be totally honest, it’s a fair result. Liverpool deserved to win. They have a real good dynamic at the moment and are in great form. They were really switched on, connected, playing with high intensity.
“We did okay in the first half, we held them and set up quite well and defended well as a unit. In transitions we were okay but then we lost the ball and once we gained the ball we made the wrong decision going forward.
“We fought right up until the point of the penalty. If we could have evened it up, we had competed well up to that point, but we have to keep going.”
Ancelotti’s post-match verdict sums up just how Real Madrid are currently a pale shadow of the teams which delivered six Champions League titles for the club in the past 11 seasons.
How often over the past decade have we seen Los Blancos seemingly mired to the canvas, only for them to haul themselves up and deliver the knockout punch against a shellshocked opponent?
When Mo Salah missed from the penalty spot a few minutes after Kelleher’s save at the other end, Liverpool fans may have feared that the European champions would make the Egyptian pay for that moment, but thankfully it wasn’t to be.
Admittedly Real Madrid were well short of the standards they showed in their previous visit to Anfield, the 5-2 win in February 2023, but both Ancelotti and Jude Bellingham have rightly acknowledged that the Reds are simply formidable right now.
Whereas Los Blancos had no answer to Mbappe’s penalty failure, Arne Slot’s team roused themselves after Salah’s miss and scored the clinching goal through Gakpo. It’s those contrasting reactions which showed where these two teams are currently at.
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