JAKARTA - Liverpool won a dramatic victory when they hosted Atletico Madrid at Anfiled in the first match of the Champions League group phase, Thursday, September 18, 2025, early morning WIB.
After winning two goals, the Reds even conceded two goals. Luckily, they didn't give up until the end.
Virgil van Dijk managed to score a winning goal in injury time to confirm three points after the game ended 3-2.
After the match, Liverpool Manager, Arne Slot, confirmed that the victory proved the mentality of his troops.
"If you want to beat a team like Atletico Madrid - who have extraordinary mentality - you have to beat them with their weapons too, that's mentality."
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"That's what we showed again that we can beat them with mentality. I think we should have made things easier for ourselves when we scored 2-0 in the first half."
"We got more than a few chances to score a third goal. When the score was 2-1 in the second half, our chances hit the post, we were very close several times."
"If the difference is only one goal, something can always happen and that happens. A little deviated, I'm not sure, but the second ball came in."
"However, once again we showed mentality because in 10 minutes that still had to be played, we continued to press, press, and finally score from set pieces," said Arne Slot reflecting his team's performance against Atletico Madrid.
In the first six minutes, Liverpool had a 2-0 lead through goals from Andrew Robertson and Mohamed Salah. Marcos Llorente then narrowed the gap between Atletico Madrid in first-half injury time.
In the second half, Llorente was wary of Liverpool. Their second goal in the 81st minute made both teams share one point.
Luckily, Van Dijk emerged as the hero of victory. He converted a corner with a header to seal a win for Liverpool.
The collection of three points put the Reds in seventh place in the 2025/2026 Champions League group stage standings.
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