It was an exciting night at Anfield as Liverpool welcomed spanish side Atletico Madrid for the opening game of 2025/26 UEFA Champions League. The host were able to claim all three points through the efforts of Andrew Robertson, Mohammed Salah and Virgil van Dijk.
Going into the game, the Reds had never lost their opening game of a European Cup/UEFA Champions League campaign when playing at home and tonight’s win raised their tally to 10 wins from 12 home openers in which they drew 2.
Following tonight’s win, Liverpool have now become the only team to have beaten Atlético Madrid in three consecutive European Cup/UEFA Champions League.
Since winning both legs in the last 16 in 2019/20 season.
Team squads
Arne Slot made three changes to the side that won Burnley at Turf Moor in Liverpool’s last outing. Meanwhile, deadline day acquisition, Alexander Isak led the frontline to make his debut for the club, with Andy Robertson and Jeremy Frimpong also starting.
On the flip side, Simeone is without star striker Alvarez after the Argentine picked up a rare injury. New signing, Giacomo Raspadori was put upfront alongside Antoine Griezmann. England midfielder, Conor Gallagher also started as Simeone’s side became the first team to go up against an Isak-led Liverpool.
Match recap
Four minutes into the game, Liverpool took the lead through an effort from Andrew Robertson. Two minutes later, Liverpool forward, Mohammed Salah sent his side to dreamland with a two goal cushion almost straight from the restart as he gets on a one-two play with Graverberch this time darting forward into the box, weaving his way past a wall of defenders and slotting a cool shot past Oblak.
This was only the seventh time a side had gone two goals ahead inside six minutes of a Champions League game, and the first time since Aston Villa did so against Celtic in January. This was also the earliest Liverpool have led by two goals and the earliest Atletico have trailed by two goals.
Liverpool kept on dominating play deep into the first half but were unlucky in the third minute of stoppage time in the first half when Marcos Llorente was able to reduce Atletico’s deficiency from a square play by Raspadori with a toe-poke into the far corner of the hosts’ goal.
With both teams creating great chances in the second half with Liverpool caming very close to increasing their lead when Salah’s first strike of a tee up from Ekitike cannoned off the woodwork and rolled out of danger.
However, Atletico broke the deadlock and leveled the game with 9 minutes left to stoppage time when Marcos Llorente scored his second of the night from the edge of the box which he volleyed into the back of the net with a little deflection off Mac Allister.
The hosts were lucky after a series of attempts when Van Dijk launched a header from Szoboszlai’s delivery into the bottom-right corner thereby giving Liverpool a well deserved win.
Diego Simeone was dismissed late in the game and this further compounded Atletico’s frustrations.
Liverpool will be back to their domestic league on Saturday as they host Everton. While Atletico will take a trip to Mallorca for their fifth game of their 2025/26 La Liga campaign.
Watch highlights of the game here:
