Desk Report:
Real Madrid are a team in high spirits at the moment. They have won 13 of their 14 matches this season. Real will play their Champions League match at Anfield, with Xavi Alonso, whose coaching has transformed the Blancos, in the dugout. Anfield, Liverpool’s ground, is also Xavi Alonso’s old home.
Alonso spent the five years before spending five years as a player at Real from 2009 to 2014. He played 143 matches, scoring 15 goals. Although Alonso is now the coach of a different team in his old home, he is known as an enemy camp for Liverpool in this match!
However, the two teams are facing each other at a time when the performances of the two teams are completely opposite. Real are winning one after another. Arne Slott’s team is in the opposite position. Liverpool have won only two of their last eight matches. A few days ago, they were also eliminated from the League Cup by Crystal Palace in the last 16 at home.
In this situation, it is very difficult for Liverpool to stop Real Madrid even when playing at home. Real Madrid conceded a lot of goals last season because their defense was not solid. Alonso took charge and repaired that fragile defense. Everyone knows that Alonso was a player with a fertile brain. Liverpool knows it even more, because he played a big role in the Allreds’ Champions League victory in Istanbul in 2005. Alonso has been using his fertile brain since he came to be the coach of Real Madrid. Real Madrid is more sharp, their defense is stronger. Spanish daily Marca wrote – ‘Alonso’s Real now suffocates the opponent, does not let them breathe.’ Mbappe, Bellingham, Vinicius – everyone seems to have found a new life in the vicinity of Alonso. Bellingham has proven by scoring consecutive goals against Barcelona, Juventus and Valencia that he is at the center of Alonso’s plans. Mbappe has added a new dimension, adding pressing to his game and becoming more dangerous. And young Arda Güler is being developed as the successor to the future Kroos-Modric. Alonso has handled his momentary conflict with Vinicius calmly, like an experienced leader.
So even though he has returned to his old home, Alonso has one goal as a professional coach – to send a message to everyone by winning at Anfield that Real is ready to rule Europe again.
