Brazilian striker Vinicius Jr. and French Karim Benzema “Remontada” led their team, Real Madrid, the defending champion, in front of its host and runner-up, Liverpool, England, and overturned its delay with two goals to a 5-2 victory, in the first leg of the Champions League final, to put the royal club ahead in the quarter-finals.
Liverpool advanced with the goals of Uruguayan Darwin Nunes (4) and Egyptian Mohamed Salah (14). Real responded with five, which were alternated by Vinicius Junior (21 and 36), compatriot Eder Militao (47) and Benzema (55 and 67).
The second leg will be held at the Santiago Bernabeu on March 15.
Liverpool failed to avenge its loss to the Royal Club with the goal of Vinicius Junior in the final of the main continental competition in Paris last May.
In a lightning start at Anfield, Liverpool scored the first goal following a cross pass from Salah on the right side, followed by Nunes, who broke the offside trap, with the heel of his right foot past Belgian goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois (4).
Liverpool did not wait more than 10 minutes to shake the net of its host for the second time following a fatal mistake by Courtois, who tried to remove a ball that reached him from Dani Carvajal, but he stumbled in front of Salah, who did not find it difficult to deposit it in the goal (14), in his eighth goal this season in the competition. .
With his 42nd goal, Salah became the best continental scorer in a Liverpool shirt, surpassing midfielder Stephen Gerrard (41), and equaled with Ivory Coast’s Didier Drogba as the best African scorer in the Champions League, with 44 goals each.
Vinicius Junior reduced the score following exchanging the ball with Benzema on the left side, to hit from inside the penalty area a creeping floor in the face of 3 defenders, who failed to be stopped by Brazilian goalkeeper Alisson (21).
Militao prevented Nunes from scoring his second and third personal goal for his team by removing the ball from the goal line (25), before Real received a moral blow by injuring his Austrian defender David Alaba and leaving to replace him with Nacho Fernandez (27).
Vinicius Junior hit a ball similar to his goal, but Baker was on the lookout (31).
Becker saluted his Belgian counterpart following he, in turn, made a fatal mistake when he tried to deflect a ball that Joe Gomez returned to him, but it collided with Vinicius Junior, who was watching the net (36).
The referee blew the final whistle as Scottish Andrew Robertson saved a ball from Vinicius Junior, which almost reached Rodrigo, alone in front of the goal (45 + 1).
Real advanced for the first time with Militao’s header following a free kick from Croatian Luka Modric (47), before Benzema added the fourth following a shot that hit Gomez and deceived the goalkeeper (55) and the fifth following he manipulated the Reds defense and hit the net (67).
Real became the second team to score 5 goals once morest Liverpool in one match in the history of European competitions, following Ajax Amsterdam in December 1966 in the European Champions Clubs Cup (5-1), according to “Opta” statistics.
