Arne Slot continues to overcome every test thrown at him as Liverpool manager.
One of the biggest tests in football right now is European giants Real Madrid. And the Dutchman admits his side will face a team they don’t know how to beat.
The Reds are top of the Premier League, with only Nottingham Forest managing to take three points from them so far this season in the country. In Europe, they have beaten AC Milan, Bologna, RB Leipzig and Bayer Leverkusen to find themselves comfortably at the top of the new Champions League table with a 100% record. But now, it’s time for the current holders of Europe’s most coveted crown, 15-time winners Real Madrid, and the competition’s most successful manager, Carlo Ancelotti, to visit Anfield. This is a team that has become famous for always finding a way to win, as they showed in last season’s success and in 2022 when they beat Liverpool in the final.
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“I can’t speak for every other team I face, but when I was at my old club I said many times that we have to enjoy Madrid, they always find a way to win,” said former Feyenoord coach Slot. . “They can win in different ways and if it’s difficult for them, they can always win a game and that’s probably one of the reasons – apart from their high quality – why they’ve won so many tournaments.
“I can only speak for myself, but maybe the players feel the same way. Whether we’re lucky enough to be a goal ahead or even more, we’re always aware of the fact, especially because of what we went through two years ago, that the game never ends until the referee blows the whistle. It’s usually like that, but I think we all feel it against Real Madrid, a little more than against the other clubs we play. »
It was in the 2022-23 season that Real came to Anfield and fell two goals behind before leaving Merseyside with a 5-2 advantage in the last 16 match, which they won 6-2 on aggregate. Liverpool haven’t tasted victory against the Spanish giants since 2009, with two final defeats in eight games without a win, meaning Slott can do something Jurgen Klopp never managed by beating Los Blancos with the Reds.
But this is a different Real, who are still adapting to the introduction of Kylian Mbappe and will be without the injured Vinicius Jr, having lost two of their four games so far in Europe this season. Jude Bellingham, who was heavily linked with a move to Liverpool before joining Madrid, will make his Anfield debut tonight.
He will not face his friend Trent Alexander-Arnold at least initially, with the right-back unable to play 90 minutes, but could feature later as he recovers from a foot injury. The Real star brushed aside a question about whether he would like to see his England team-mate join the club next season, with Alexander-Arnold set to expire at Liverpool this summer.
“He’s a Liverpool player and it would be disrespectful to come to his house with a big game and talk about something that could be misinterpreted, so it’s important to take that pressure off him.
