MARK OF THE DAY

LIVERPOOL. — Manager Arne Slot expressed relief on Wednesday that Liverpool had finally managed to beat Real Madrid for the first time in 15 years but stressed he was not getting carried away by his team’s perfect start in the Champions League.

Second-half goals from Alexis Mac Allister and Cody Gakpo gave the Reds a deserved win in a dominant performance against the Champions League holders whom they last beat in 2009.

“You know how special it is to play against a team that has won the Champions League so many times. They were a pain for Liverpool for many years too,” said a delighted Slot, whose team has now won five out of five in Europe’s elite club competition.

“I think it’s always good to win a game, and especially a big game like this, because you face so many quality players,” he added. “We are only five games in the new format, we are happy where we are, but we’re not getting carried away.”

With his team top of both the Champions League and the Premier League, Slot has made an astonishing start since replacing Juergen Klopp, adding more solidity at the back and control in midfield without sacrificing attacking threat.

“I didn’t have a schedule in terms of the amount of points I wanted. You want to implement the playing style as soon as possible. That is not difficult because it wasn’t that different to Juergen’s,” he said.

Slot was full of praise for 21-year-old Conor Bradley, who brought the Anfield crowd to their feet with a fantastic first-half tackle against Kylian Mbappe, and of Caoimhin Kelleher who saved a second-half penalty from the Real striker.

Goalscorer Mac Allister echoed his boss’ caution against getting over-confident, downplaying talk of Liverpool now being favourites to win the Champions League.

“It is nice but at the same time it means nothing because it is just the first phase,” he said, referring to the new 36-team league format before knockout games begin.

“We are happy with our performances, that’s the most important thing and we will keep going.”

Next up for Liverpool are Manchester City on Sunday in the Premier League and a chance to open up an 11-point gap with their main domestic rivals.

“Man City have not been on the best run at the moment, but what a team,” said Kelleher. “So we’re going to expect a really tough test again and it’s important we keep winning in the (domestic) league as well to keep that gap.”

Meanwhile, Striker Kylian Mbappe had another subdued and disappointing performance for Real Madrid, failing to seriously trouble Liverpool’s defence and missing a penalty in their 2-0 Champions League defeat at Anfield.

The World Cup winning forward has scored one goal in his last six games in all competitions but manager Carlo Ancelotti defended him after Wednesday’s match as an “extraordinary” player who just needed support and patience to thrive in Spain.

“It’s a difficult moment for him, we’ve got to support him and give him our love, he’ll soon be fine,” Ancelotti said.

“It could be a lack of confidence maybe. Sometimes you have moments when things aren’t quite working out for you. But you get through these moments. People miss penalties, it happens a lot. You can’t put too much grief on him for that.

“He works hard, he’s got to keep working hard and fighting. You get through these moments. Things just aren’t running for him at the moment. We’ve got be patient. He’s an extraordinary player.”

Ancelotti said Liverpool deserved to win the game.

“I think that to be totally honest with you, it was a fair result,” he said. “They have a really good dynamic at the moment, they are switched on, they play with a high intensity.”

Even though Real are 24th in the 36-team league, and in danger of missing out on the knockout phase, he was confident their form would pick up sufficiently.

“I think this game today wasn’t a decisive game,” he said. “We’ll be there, we’ll be competing in the knockout phase, like in previous years.”

Real midfielder Jude Bellingham echoed his boss’ remarks that Liverpool outplayed them.

“They were more up for it than us which is very disappointing. It is a bad result against the best-performing team in Europe,” he said.

“We are disappointed at how we have performed and it is important that we win the next three games and give ourselves a chance to go through.”

Bellingham was also supportive of Mbappe.

“He is a wonderful player but the pressure on him because of how good he is huge. The penalty is not why we lost the game. They performed better than us. I know that he will produce many more moments that will be huge for this club,” he said. — SuperSport.