Real Madrid celebrated beating Liverpool in the Champions League by blaring out You’ll Never Walk Alone at the Santiago Bernabeu, paying tribute to a gesture from the Anfield club in the first leg.
Liverpool’s famous anthem boomed around the ground within moments of the match finishing as Madrid confirmed a 6-2 aggregrate success.
Karim Benzema had scored the only goal of the second leg 12 minutes from time. The Spanish giants then celebrated the win by playing the anthem closely associated with Liverpool.
The gesture came from the fact that Liverpool laid flowers in tribute to Madrid’s club legend and former president Amancio Amaro ahead of the first leg of the tie at Anfield, after Amaro had died that day.
Liverpool fans had also applauded Real’s players off the pitch after their 5-2 victory. A gesture that the club deeply appreciated.
Real boss, Carlo Ancelotti said after the second leg, “they honoured Amancion in the first leg. It’s a fair gesture from our club towards them.”
All the damage had been done in the first leg. But even with a 5-2 deficit there remained the romantic notion among the die-hards and dreamers that Jurgen Klopp’s side could fashion a performance to rival that of Istanbul 2005 or Anfield 2019 against Barcelona.
This was the 14-time winners’ 300th Champions League match. All that experience showed with a balanced and controlled display of sharp attacking and tidy defending capped by a goal from their long-time nemesis Benzema.
And it was a misjudgement by one of their most experienced players in Virgil van Dijk. He allowed Vinicius Jr a second chance to pass to Benzema. The France international slotted into an open goal and eventually killed off Liverpool’s remote hopes in the 78th minute.
Klopp’s 4-2-3-1 attacking formation was designed to get goals. But the risk which came with any potential reward was that it left them more susceptible to counter-attacks. Similarly, their goal led a charmed life for most of the first half as if it was not the quality of Alisson it was the woodwork – or both – which kept Real at bay.
Darwin Nunez’s shot which forced Thibaut Courtois to save with his legs early on sparked the hosts into life. It was something of a surprise they had not broken the deadlock by half-time.
Toni Kroos fired one into Alisson’s midriff. Thereafter, Real broke in a two-on-two from a Liverpool corner. Vinicius Jr played in Benzema but Gakpo raced back to block.
Cue Alisson’s first major intervention, superbly denying a close-range volley from Vinicius Jr from the corner.
His second was more spectacular but just as effective, reaching up to tip Eduardo Camavinga’s long-range effort onto the crossbar and over.
Liverpool were on the ropes. Regardless, they successfully managed to punch their way out of trouble with Gakpo missing a glancing header from Alexander-Arnold’s cross and Nunez weakly nodding goalwards from a Fabinho pass.
But the Uruguay international did much better cutting in from the left to curl in a low, right-footed shot which Courtois had to tip around the post.
Vinicius Jr repeated the same manoeuvre at the other end. However, he presented Alisson with one of his more comfortable saves of the half. Courtois was the last to be tested before the break when he batted away a Gakpo effort.
Alisson saved from Federico Valverde and Benzema in quick succession after Andy Robertson gave the ball away 30 yards from his own goal. Meanwhile, Salah was reluctance to play in Nunez and denied Liverpool a good chance at the other end.
Ten minutes into the second half Klopp rolled the dice. He replaced Nunez and Diogo Jota with Roberto Firmino and Harvey Elliott as he reverted to 4-3-3. Despite that, Real continued to carve out the best chances with Valverde’s header just too high and Benzema blazing over.
But the France striker was not to be denied. Vinicius Jr fluffed his attempted shot. He was given a reprieve by a frozen Van Dijk and Benzema slotted home his seventh goal against them.