They got what they came for: defeat with honour. It is pointless Brendan Rodgers trying to spin it any other way. There is no way Liverpool could have hoped to win in the Bernabeu Stadium with this team.
That they survived with dignity intact is as much by luck as judgement. Yes, Liverpool worked very hard, defended tenaciously and goalkeeper Simon Mignolet – one of the few first-team regulars to keep his place – was magnificent.
Yet it also needed Gareth Bale to hit the bar, Cristiano Ronaldo to take one touch too many repeatedly and Real Madrid, collectively, to squander enough chances to have won by double figures.
That would have been harsh on Liverpool’s second string, who could not have been faulted for their effort, but may have been a more fitting consequence. It was a terrible shame to see the Premier League club play the marquee fixture of their season so far in the manner of inferiors.
Whatever the reasoning, however slender the scoreline, this was in essence a failure: of ambition, of achievement and, looking at the Group B table, maybe even of tournament tactics too. Whatever happens on matchday five, a draw with Basle will put Liverpool out. Had they given themselves a hope of winning here, who knows?
The fact Liverpool avoided embarrassment cannot yet be reinvented as some manner of triumph. The debate around Rodgers team selection will rage until the final whistle at Anfield on Saturday, when it will be known whether his ploy to rest the majority of his starting line-up to keep them fresh for the visit of Chelsea has paid off.
Rodgers says the display against Newcastle United was as much part of this shake-up as forward planning, but this is a results business. Win and everything you do was right and wise; lose and, well, you know.
So without knowing the effect, all that can be assessed is last night’s result and the message it sent. Did it win Liverpool the game and blow Group B wide open? No. Did it get a draw? No. Did Liverpool do better than expected? Yes. Were Real Madrid demotivated by the sight of their opponents' Capital One Cup team? Probably. Was it the occasion we had hoped for? No. And that really is the bottom line, until part two of the great experiment unfolds.
For this should have been a highlight in Liverpool’s season, the game that signalled their return to elite football – a repeat of a European Cup final from the days when this tournament truly was for champions. The moment the draw was made, this was the pairing that would have leapt out to fanatical Koppites, neutrals and football romantics.
Liverpool, back in the Bernabeu, back where they belong, some would say. Any Anfield regular who says his imagination did not run a little wild at the sight of it is surely lying. The champions of Europe? Ronaldo, James Rodriguez, Bale? What if we could beat them, as Rafael Benitez once did?
Liverpool are a club that yearns to add to their storied European history. Might this be another night that will live in the memory, that might be commemorated in flags and songs? What will not have been contemplated is that they might arrive in Madrid already having surrendered hopes of victory. Rodgers insisted he did nothing of the sort – yet if the first team was dismantled with three first-half goals at Anfield two weeks ago, what chance did Liverpool Lite have?
Rodgers thought his team was unlucky not to win, but with one shot on target all game that was literally impossible, considering Madrid scored. Ultimately, it was one of those achievements that required a sub-clause. You know – quite likable, for a politician. Good touch, for a big man.
Liverpool did well, for the reserves. Real Madrid had 27 goal attempts, Liverpool four. Nine on target, to one. They were slaughtered, yet in the circumstances, it felt like a decent display.
By the end the cavalry was on – and what reinforcements they were. Steven Gerrard, Raheem Sterling, Philippe Coutinho – the players that, when the draw was made, would have been anticipating this as a potential career highlight. In the end, there were the supporting cast.
Of course, Liverpool are an elite club and even their understudies have a certain cache – but it still felt wrong, tossing away such a meeting, focusing on the two remaining group games and, more obviously, Chelsea.
Rodgers will say big decisions like this are what elite management is about – but it could equally be argued games like this are about something more than damage limitation. The resilience, the commitment notwithstanding, it was still a pity to see Liverpool approach the fixture this way.
Sterling was given a knowingly warm reception by the home crowd – almost as if they were tempting him, showing what life could be like at a club with greater ambition. Madrid have 10 of these trophies already yet demand more. Liverpool did not look big in the same way. They played Real like underdogs and no matter the difference between the teams at Anfield, Liverpool should never start out like that in a European tie.
Once the team was known, many would have settled for only losing 1-0. Even that it took 27 minutes to happen was seen as something of a triumph initially. It was a simple goal, considering the intricacies of much of Real Madrid’s work.
Marcelo ran down the left, crossed, and Karim Benzema ran off Kolo Toure to stick out a foot on the slide and turn the ball into the roof of the net. It was classic Benzema, a tricky finish made to look rather easy. He is in magnificent form this season – this is his fourth goal in four Champions League matches.
Rodgers will be pleased he went with Mignolet and not Brad Jones in goal, though. By the time the 10th minute was up he had made two world-class saves and his work load did not diminish throughout. There were just four minutes gone when a shot from James forced a superb one-handed diversion, while from Madrid’s next attack, Martin Skrtel took a horribly heavy touch attempting to clear and Benzema cut the ball back for Ronaldo, who forced another good stop from Mignolet.
A lot of the time, Madrid were happy to practise training-ground keep ball, and with Liverpool barely involving Iker Casillas in the game, it hardly mattered. In a short spell before half-time, however, Real could have had three goals inside four minutes.
First, there was a free-kick from Ronaldo struck with such venom that Mignolet’s save cannoned out for a throw-in some 20 yards up the pitch. In the 36th minute, a lovely chip by Raphael Varane was chased down by Benzema, Toure just getting a toe in take the ball away, but almost lobbing Mignolet in the process. Finally, Benzema set up Marcelo for a low shot that Mignolet saved.
The second half was little different. The Marcelo-Benzema axis almost produced a second, Ronaldo and Bale had free-kicks saved and Bale then hit the bar from a Marcelo cross.
Without the three points against Chelsea, though, or progress from this group, this is merely another opportunity wasted. It was gutsy and admirable, yes, but not in a way that told the world Liverpool are back. Indeed, who knows when the Bernabeu will see them again?
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