Real Madrid beat Valencia 4-0 in La Liga on Saturday night, and Xabi Alonso immediately turned his attention to the Champions League match against Liverpool.
Xabi Alonso quickly turned his attention to Liverpool after Real Madrid’s win over Valencia. The Reds face the La Liga giants on Tuesday night in a Champions League match in the fourth tier of the league.
Liverpool have six points from their opening three games this season, with wins over Atletico Madrid and Eintracht Frankfurt. Arne Slott’s side had lost four straight in the Premier League before defeating Aston Villa 2-0 at Anfield on Saturday night.
Meanwhile, Madrid beat Valencia 4-0 in La Liga on Saturday night, and as soon as the final whistle blew at the Santiago Bernabéu, Alonso’s focus shifted to Liverpool. This will also be Alonso’s second return to Anfield as manager, having oversaw Bayer Leverkusen’s 4-0 win over Liverpool in last season’s Champions League.
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“Things went well. In the second half we managed the game well because we knew we had a game on Tuesday,” Alonso told reporters on Saturday night.
“We had to be smart because some players played a lot of minutes and a lot of things went well. We don’t want to relax and we want to go into every game with the necessary mental preparation.
“We did that today. Now, Tuesday is the Champions League, Sunday is Vallecas. Tomorrow it’s Liverpool and Liverpool.”
Liverpool manager Arne Slott was delighted that his club’s losing streak ended with an impressive win over Villa. “I’m happy with the result, the performance and what we saw today. The support from the players as well as the fans was what we needed today,” Slott said on Saturday night.
“Maybe we were a little more on the lucky side than we have been in recent weeks, but in my opinion we were also unlucky, so mistakes and deflections by the opponent’s goalkeeper led to our two goals.
“These are the margins we are talking about. I think in other games we created more from open play than we did today. But in football it’s the results that matter, not the chances you create from open play.”
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