Liverpool is 100 percent on top of the UEFA Champions League after dumping title holder Real Madrid into an almost unbelievable 24th place in the 36-team standings on Wednesday.
No one felt the embarrassment of Madrid’s 2-0 loss at Anfield more than Kylian Mbappe, the superstar added in the offseason by the storied club that also was European champion against Liverpool in the finals of 2022 and 2018.
Mbappe had a penalty saved in the second half and was earlier dumped on his behind by 21-year-old Northern Ireland defender Conor Bradley’s superb tackle in an instant viral moment.
Photo: REUTERS
Only Liverpool has started the new Champions League format with five wins and first-year coach Arne Slot’s team is two points clear of Inter Milan. Barcelona is third, trailing Liverpool by three points.
Madrid is, remarkably, with three rounds left just one place above being eliminated. The top eight teams at the end of January go direct to the round of 16 in March, and teams placed from ninth to 24th enter a round of two-leg playoffs in February.
“[This] doesn’t change much, because even with a win it was going to be tough to secure a top-eight finish,” Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti said. ”It was a fair result.”
Monaco missed a chance to go second in the table, giving up a lead playing with 10 men from the 58th minute in a 3-2 loss at home to Benfica. Swiss forward Zeki Amdouni scored the winning goal in the 88th minute.
Borussia Dortmund, the beaten finalist against Madrid in May, is up to fourth place after beating Dinamo Zagreb 3-0. Champions League standout Jamie Gittens now has four goals in five games, curling a rising shot in the 41st minute to open the scoring in Croatia.
The best comeback was at PSV Eindhoven, where the home team trailed Shakhtar Donetsk by two goals in the 87th minute before a 3-2 win was sealed by US forward Ricardo Pepi’s goal deep in stoppage time.
US defender Cameron Carter-Vickers scored an embarrassing own goal for Celtic — playing a no-look pass far beyond goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel — in a 1-1 draw with Club Brugge.
“One of those things,” Schmeichel said. “Cam gets pressed and he hasn’t heard me shout that I’m not in [goa].”
Congo teammates Ngal’Ayel Mukau and Silas impressed in wins for Lille and Red Star Belgrade.
Mukau scored twice in 12th-place Lille’s 2-1 win at Bologna and Silas leveled for Red Star in a 5-1 rout of Stuttgart, although he barely celebrated his goal. Silas is on loan with the Serbian champion from Stuttgart.
Aston Villa’s 0-0 draw with Juventus was preserved by an excellent save by Emiliano Martinez, the FIFA World Cup-winning Argentina goalkeeper, diving low to push away a header from Francisco Conceicao.
CONOR BRADLEY
Liverpool’s stand-in right back Bradley was a standout on Wednesday, denying Mbappe at high speed in a signature defensive play in the 32nd minute.
The defender, deputizing for fit-again Trent Alexander-Arnold, joined the attack in the 52nd minute to play a key pass returning the ball to Argentine Alexis Mac Allister who scored the opening goal.
After Mbappe’s penalty was pushed away by Irish goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher in the 61st, Liverpool Egyptian star Mo Salah missed his spot-kick in the 70th minute, before substitute Cody Gakpo sealed the win with a header in the 77th minute.
Madrid have lost three of five games after defeats at Lille and at home to AC Milan. The record 15-time European champions have another tough trip next, at fifth-place Atalanta on Dec. 10. On the same date, Liverpool is at 30th-place Girona and looks to be cruising into the round of 16.
“You know how special it is to play against a team that has won the Champions League so many times,” Liverpool coach Slot said of Madrid. “They were a pain for Liverpool for many years too.”
FIRST WINS
Red Star Belgrade and Sturm Graz ended four-game losing runs to get their first points and wins.
Red Star rallied against Stuttgart after the German team led in the 5th minute. The 1991 European Cup winner’s goal to level the game in the 12th minute was scored by on-loan Silas. He held up his hands as if in apology as part of a low-key celebration.
Sturm Graz won 1-0 against Girona, the Spanish newcomer to European competitions.
It was the Austrian champion’s first Champions League game since coach Christian Ilzer left to join Hoffenheim.
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