Thibaut Courtois and Alisson Becker make howlers in Champions League thriller between Liverpool and Real Madrid
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Published 21/02/2023 at 21:35 GMT
Thibaut Courtois and Alisson Becker's names were to the fore in the first half of Liverpool against Real Madrid in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie - but not for the right reasons. Courtois made the first error, allowing Mohamed Salah to score after miscontrolling the ball. Shortly afterwards, Alisson passed a ball straight at Vinicius Junior as the visitors drew level.
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With the squads of Liverpool and Real Madrid littered with some of the best players in world football, it’s no surprise that the giants shared four goals between them in an enthralling opening 45 minutes of Champions League football at Anfield.
What no one would have expected, though, is that half of those goals would come from dreadful goalkeeping blunders.
With a place in the quarter-finals at stake, Liverpool made a dream start to the first leg when, in the fourth minute, Darwin Nunez opened the scoring in terrific fashion, flicking the ball past Courtois from close range.
It quickly went from the sublime to the ridiculous 10 minutes later when Thibaut Courtois – who was Player of the Match when these sides met in the 2022 final – tried to deal with a back pass only for the ball to bobble off his knee, leaving Mohamed Salah with a tap-in.
"It's a terrible error," said BT Sport commentator Darren Fletcher. "It's an absolute gift."
The goal made Salah Liverpool's all-time leading scorer in European football with 42 strikes.
The game took another twist when Vinicius Jr rifled a terrific shot into the top corner to halve the deficit to silence the home supporters at Anfield.
But they had seen nothing yet, as eight minutes before half-time, Los Blancos were gifted an equaliser when Alisson Becker inexplicably played a pass straight at Vinicius Jr and the ball looped into the air before hitting the back of the net.
Not that he knew much about it, but Vinicius Jr is now the top scorer against Liverpool in Champions League history with five goals.
The embarrassing moment left Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp with a wry smile on his face.
"Well, what can you say?" said Steve McManaman. "It's another goalkeeping error, it's as simple as that.
"Alisson Becker's just trying to play it out, gets it all wrong. The pass was just never on."
"It's an astonishing chain of events," said Fletcher.
"I mean, what odds would you have got for the two goalkeepers, as experienced as they are, making errors like they have tonight?"
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