21 February 2023 , 20:53
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Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois was guilty of a disastrous mistake during Tuesday night's Champions League clash against Liverpool - before opposite number Alisson matched him with a clanger of his own.
The Reds opened the scoring within four minutes of the last-16 first leg through Darwin Nunez's fine flick - and soon increased their advantage after a rare blunder from Courtois. The Belgian got it all wrong as Dani Carvajal played the ball back to him, trying to be too deft as Mohamed Salah closed him down.
Courtois controlled the ball with his chest and attempted to take a touch with his foot, but the ball came off his knee and bobbled straight into Salah's path. The Egyptian had the simplest of tasks to finish into the gaping goal and send Anfield into frenzy with less than quarter of an hour on the clock.
"From the Man of the Match in the Champions League Final to a huge error tonight from Thibaut Courtois," Steve McManaman said on co-commentary duty for BT Sport. "[Jordan] Henderson slips, [Eduardo] Camavinga slips and then Liverpool break, and as we've seen [Cody] Gakpo again, nice touch, but just overruns it.
"You just have to touch it and clear your lines, [the ball] bounces off his knee and fair play to Mo Salah, he's the one thinking, 'what happens if?' And that's when you get your rewards. [It] Bobbles off his knee and it's a brilliant finish with his left foot."
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Thibaut Courtois gave the ball straight to Mohamed Salah to increase Liverpool's lead (Michael Regan/Getty Images)However, the home fans' delight quickly turned to despair after Los Blancos equalised through two goals from Vinicius Junior. The Brazilian's first of the night was a brilliant, rifled effort from inside the box which gave Alisson no chance.
His second, in contrast, could hardly have been more fortuitous as the Liverpool No.1 passed the ball straight at him and was helpless as the ball cannoned off the Real Madrid star and ballooned into the net. Alisson was under very little pressure after Joe Gomez passed back to him but made the wrong decision by trying to give the ball back to his English teammate.
Alisson gifted Real Madrid an equaliser with an unwise clearance straight at Vinicius Junior (Jon Super/AP/REX/Shutterstock)Liverpool fans on social media had gleefully jeered Courtois and taunted him each time he received the ball after his error. Yet they were notably quiet towards the 30-year-old after witnessing their own shot-stopper - who is usually so reliable and regarded as one of the best in the world - gift Real Madrid an equaliser.
McManaman said: " What can you say? Another goalkeeping error, simple as that. Fede Valverde tries to play a through ball to Vinicius Junior, Joe Gomez deals with it quite easily, and Alisson Becker's just trying to play it out, isn't he? [He] Gets it all wrong. Again, fair play to the forward, running, carrying on, trying to get it. [He] Turns his back, actually, and [the ball] just cannons off him into the back of the net. I mean, the pass was just never on."
One fan reflected on the dramatic first half strewn with errors by writing on Twitter: " I was so confident when it was 2-0. Was s***ting on courtois mistake too. Just for alisson to do the same and to almost go down." Another Reds supporter assessed: "We just can't enjoy anything man. Courtois should be the laughing stock tonight but we can’t allow anyone to be bigger clowns than us."