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Thibaut Courtois makes major Anfield admission as Real Madrid struggle to cope with Liverpool

-Credit: (Image: Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images)
-Credit: (Image: Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images)


Thibaut Courtois admitted that Real Madrid struggled to cope with the intensity shown by Liverpool and the Anfield crowd as the Spanish side fell to a 2-0 defeat on Wednesday night. Goals from Alexis Mac Allister and Cody Gakpo clinched a fifth consecutive Champions League opening stage win for Arne Slot's side.

Madrid were swept away by an excellent performance from Liverpool, who have won 17 of 19 games under new head coach Slot as the Dutchman led the Reds to a first victory in eight matches against the La Liga giants.

And Courtois, who has enjoyed standout performances against Liverpool previously and played a huge part in Madrid's 2022 Champions League final victory over the Reds in Paris, says they just couldn't cope at Anfield.

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He said: “Liverpool are one of the most in-form teams in Europe at the moment and playing here is always difficult. We competed and defended well, especially in the first half, but offensively things didn’t work out for us and we struggled to create danger.

"We couldn’t define the counterattacks with the final pass and that makes it difficult. In the second half they quickly went 1-0 up and unfortunately we missed the penalty. We kept trying, but after the second goal it was already difficult.”

Madrid are now 24th in the Champions League table and Courtois admits they have work to do to qualify from the opening stage of the competition.

He added: “We lacked a bit of play. We played better in the second half, but they finished well. Obviously we are short of players, but we never use that as an excuse. We are who we are and we will continue fighting.

"Today we lost against a better team and that is fine. It makes it difficult for us to get into the top eight, but we have to try to win against Atalanta and the other two games that remain to qualify.”