From the second that Actual Madrid had been confirmed as one in every of Liverpool’s 4 opponents at Anfield within the league part of this season’s Champions League, one title instantly jumped to thoughts.
It appeared inevitable that the footballing gods would hand Trent Alexander-Arnold a return to his former stomping floor on the earliest alternative, and so it proved on the day that the 36 groups in Europe’s premier membership match found who they’d be going through within the opening spherical.
The 26-year-old left Merseyside for the Spanish capital in contentious circumstances earlier this yr, working down his contract together with his boyhood facet till Los Blancos stepped in to pay £10m to signal him a month early in order that he might function within the FIFA Membership World Cup.
Actual Madrid got here from behind to beat Marseille 2-1 of their opening 2025/26 Champions League fixture on Tuesday night time, however it got here with some substantial collateral harm.
Actual Madrid going through potential choice disaster for Liverpool journey
Alexander-Arnold picked up a hamstring harm inside the primary 5 minutes and needed to be substituted, together with his alternative Dani Carvajal later getting himself stupidly despatched off for headbutting Geronimo Rulli.
As per BBC Sport, the England worldwide is ready to be sidelined for ‘as much as six weeks’, and whereas his present membership face Liverpool seven weeks from now, he might but be uncertain for the Anfield fixture if his restoration takes longer than initially projected.
Actual Madrid left and not using a pure right-back after double whammy
Actual Madrid head coach Xabi Alonso is now left with a significant choice headache that he might nonetheless have by the point he returns to Merseyside in early November.
In keeping with Mundo Deportivo (by way of Soccer Espana), Carvajal will obtain a minimal two-match European suspension after his purple card, probably rising to 3 video games or extra if the referee’s report deems it an act of aggression.
Los Blancos’ two pure right-backs will duly be unavailable their subsequent two Champions League fixtures (away to Kairat Almaty and at residence to Juventus) and may be susceptible to lacking the showdown in opposition to Liverpool.
If the latter state of affairs involves cross, Alonso can be compelled to redeploy somebody out of place to deputise at right-back – the likeliest candidates would seem like Raul Asencio, Eder Militao or Federico Valverde (Transfermarkt).
Midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai excelled when making such an adjustment for the Reds in latest weeks, however there’s no assure that one in every of Actual Madrid’s gamers would do the identical in the event that they’re compelled right into a reshuffle.
Whereas clearly we by no means prefer to see gamers being injured, Los Blancos might be notably weakened for his or her go to to Anfield on 4 November, a scenario that Liverpool would fortunately exploit within the newest chapter of a European rivalry which has developed over the previous decade.
You may watch the Liverpool squad put together for Champions League motion by way of our YouTube channel:
