On Tuesday, February 21, 2023, the Liverpool team of England lost 5-2 to Real Madrid of Spain in the first match of the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League 2022-2023.
The game between these two teams started at Anfield, in memory of the player who died today who played for Real Madrid, Amancio Amaro Varela, who died at the age of 83.
Liverpool as the home team started the attack, but Real Madrid were very calm and played at the back with no escape.
Cody Gakpo got the first chance of the game, he stole the ball from Eduardo Camavinga but he also shot it wide.
In the fourth minute, Liverpool opened the scoring in this game, with a goal scored by Darwin Núñez after receiving the ball from Mohamed Salah.
The goal was scored due to a mistake made by Courtois on the ball sent by Dani Carvajal and he failed to shoot it, Mohamed Salah scored the second.
Thibaut Courtois made the mistake when he was the last man of the match when these teams last met in the final of this cup.
Vinícius Junior was excellent in this game, helping Rela Madrid get back into the game in the 21st minute, scoring a goal from a pass from Karim Benzema. At this point Real Madrid saw that going into the break was a possible draw.
Goalkeeper Alisson made a mistake in this game and missed the second goal, from a corner by Luka Modrić. This was the key to all the goals he scored in this game.
Three minutes after the break, Luka Modrić delivered the perfect ball as usual for Éder Militão, scoring the third goal of the match.
Liverpool were visibly frustrated, with Real Madrid making a good start and struggling mainly through Vinicius Jr’s side and Trent Alexander-Arnold.
The fourth goal was scored by Karim Benzema after receiving the ball from Rodrygo who was playing on the right side. Vinícius Junior also passed the ball to Karim Benzema for the fifth goal.
With the game ending at 2-5, Liverpool are required to win 3-0 in the other game to go to extra minutes or 4-0 to advance to the quarter.
Despite Liverpool’s defeat, Mohamed Salah became the top scorer in international competition with 42 goals, one more than Steven Gerrard.
What Salah did in this game is that he equaled 44 goals with Didier Drogba, as the African player with the most goals in the UEFA Champions League.
