The ethereal Courtois and the marksman Vinícius. Recall Liverpool’s last clash with Real in the LM final

It’s been eight months since Real Madrid last faced Liverpool. In the Champions League final played in Paris, the Spanish side won 1-0, with Vinícius scoring the only goal. Let’s recap that match before today’s eight-final match.

The final was originally scheduled to be played at the Zenit St. Petersburg stadium, but due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, UEFA withdrew the hosting from Russia. France offered, and so the match between Europe’s top two teams was moved to Paris at the Stade de France.

But the match, scheduled to start at 9pm, did not start as it should have. A few Liverpool fans got into the stadium and had no business being there. They didn’t have a ticket, but they wanted to watch the match, so they started jumping the fence en masse.

The turnstiles then stopped working and those with real tickets were unable to get into the stadium. The start of the match was thus delayed by more than half an hour.

The ethereal Courtois

But then the football spectacle began. Liverpool had the first two chances, only they didn’t know that Thibaut Courtois had put on the unbeaten gloves.

First he cleared Salah’s cross, then he pushed Mané’s shot onto the bar. Just before half-time, Real Madrid took the lead. Benzema worked a pass behind the defence, but hesitated a little in the tackle and headed the invasion in front of goal.

After a miscommunication between Konate and Alisson, the ball was played into a duel between Valverde and Fabinho and bounced back to Benzema. The French striker had no more trouble getting the ball into the net. However, VAR found an offside and the goal was disallowed.

However, Real didn’t have to be sorry for long. In the 59th minute, Valverde started the engines on the right and headed it all the way into the whitewash. A flicked pass found Vinícius at the far end of the box and the young Brazilian easily tapped the ball into the empty net.

Then Courtois was at it again on the other side of the pitch. First he cleared Salah’s attempt from outside the box, then he stopped the Egyptian striker’s close-range effort.

But probably the best save of the game came moments later, Salah worked a pass behind the defence, dispossessed Mendy and fired with his right hand just outside the small area and was about to celebrate when Courtois pulled off an unearthly save and cleared the ball off the three posts.

Before the end, Dani Ceballos could have increased the score to 2: 0. He raced alone to the goal, tried to find Vinícius in front of the empty net, but Robertson blocked his pass.

Nothing more happened in the match and Real Madrid celebrated their 14th Champions League title. Just like in 2018, Liverpool had to watch his joy with sadness in their eyes.

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