{"id":29774,"date":"2023-02-21T22:22:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-21T22:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=29774"},"modified":"2023-02-21T22:22:03","modified_gmt":"2023-02-21T22:22:03","slug":"champions-league-liverpool-2-5-real-madrid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2023\/02\/21\/champions-league-liverpool-2-5-real-madrid\/","title":{"rendered":"Champions League: Liverpool 2-5 Real Madrid"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Vinicius Junior and Karim Benzema both struck twice as Real Madrid hit back from two down to claim a sensational 5-2 victory at Liverpool in a devastating first leg performance in their Champions League last-16 tie at Anfield.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jurgen Klopp\u2019s side had initially looked up to the challenge and roared out the traps with Darwin Nunez opening the scoring courtesy of a sublime backheel flick from Mo Salah\u2019s low pass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Egyptian then doubled the home side\u2019s lead on 14 minutes when he capitalised on a howler from goalkeeper, Thibaut Courtois. It was Salah\u2019s 42nd goal for Liverpool in the competition, which saw him become the club\u2019s all-time leading scorer in Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Klopp<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Real had looked set to be blown away at this juncture, but soon recovered and reduced the arrears on 21 minutes when a piece of individual genius resulted in Vinicius thundering a wonderful effort into the far corner from the left side of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 22-year-old Real forward then silenced Anfield 15 minutes later when he inadvertently deflected Alisson\u2019s dreadful attempt at a pass to the right flank into an empty net.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It had been a breathless, even spectacle up to the interval but the visitors moved up a gear in the second period and ripped through the Merseysiders at will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, Eder Militao headed home Luka Modric\u2019s left-wing free-kick on 47 minutes before Benzema pretty much put the tie out of sight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Frenchman saw his first goal deflect in off Joe Gomez and then helped himself to a double 23 minutes from time when he side-stepped Alisson to gleefully fire into an empty net following another ruthless counter attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The result leaves Liverpool with an absolute mountain to climb ahead of the second leg at the Bernabeu on Wednesday, March 15.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Klopp\u2019s men will now turn their attention back to their push for a top-four spot when they visit Crystal Palace on Saturday evening. Real host Atletico in the Madrid derby.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vinicius Junior and Karim Benzema both struck twice as Real Madrid hit back from two down to claim a sensational 5-2 victory at Liverpool in a devastating first leg performance in their Champions League last-16 tie at Anfield. Jurgen Klopp\u2019s side had initially looked up to the challenge and roared out the traps with Darwin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":29775,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3295],"tags":[6285,5304,5891,1911,305,7173,6621,6159,3269,803,12234,8192,7031,9598,6286,3874,197,12309,816,196,12871,895,10885,5889,3954],"class_list":["post-29774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-sport","tag-anfield","tag-attack","tag-benzema","tag-champions-league","tag-crystal-palace","tag-darwin-nunez","tag-europe","tag-fire","tag-genius","tag-goalkeeper","tag-host","tag-jurgen-klopp-2","tag-jurgen-klopp","tag-karim-benzema","tag-klopp","tag-lead","tag-liverpool","tag-men","tag-mo-salah","tag-real-madrid","tag-salah","tag-thibaut-courtois","tag-victory","tag-vinicius-junior","tag-will"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}