This game is really laying on the nostalgia for me.
Real Madrid 0 Liverpool FC 1: The night 'sacked' Rafa Benitez masterminded Bernabeu win
Oct 20, 2014 13:00 By Kristian Walsh
In the week of Real Madrid's visit to Anfield, a look back at the Reds' three victories - from three games - over the Spanish giants
“First it was the Nou Camp, then the San Siro and now even the mighty Bernabeu has fallen to Rafa Benitez’s Liverpool.”
The bare facts of the Reds' 1-0 win over Real Madrid – alluded to by Tony Barrett, then of the Liverpool ECHO – are compelling enough.
Rafael Benitez's side strode into the Bernabeu and did to the Spanish champions what they had previously done to both Barcelona and Inter Milan – won, and won with a showing stamped with the unmistakable insignia of Benitez.
Yossi Benayoun's goal, meeting a pinpoint Fabio Aurelio free kick and nodding past Iker Casillas, came eight minutes from time.
For the previous 82 minutes, the Reds had contained Real; this was not an erection of a red barricade preparing for the Spanish inquisition, but rather a calm, controlled performance.
But the preceding 24 hours was far from calm or controlled, and made the victory in Madrid even more astonishing.
No rumour circulates more vigorously than one caught in the wind of the River Mersey, and here was one of the most preposterous of all: Benitez was a dead man walking.
The Reds were second in the Premier League having lost just one game all season, seven points adrift of Manchester United but 10 clear of fifth-placed Arsenal.
Yet the Spaniard's position was being spoken about in the past tense, both in Liverpool and in Madrid on match day. The Plaza Mayor had become a major place of rumour.
The bookmakers had even suspended betting, so that was that.
As the ECHO's David Prentice reported the day after the night before: “The nation's sports fans were ablaze with intense speculation yesterday.
“'I'm telling you, he's said his goodbyes at Melwood,' said one Echo caller, 'the bookies have stopped taking bets on him going' screamed Sky TV, while radio stations dug out former players to cast an 'expert' view on the 'breaking news.'”
To think a manager who had took the Reds to second, and was yet again in the last 16 of Europe's premier competition, was maddening.
But this was a maddening period for Liverpool with seismic divisions within the club and the fans straddling the fault line.
“This is what Liverpool have come to,” wrote Barrett.
“But the most worrying aspect of all is that there could still be worse to come because there are no signs of divisions being healed, no indication that anyone in the club’s hierarchy has the inclination to lead the club out of one of the most troubled periods in its history.”
But on the Bernabeu pitch, it didn't matter.
The Reds were without Steven Gerrard, who was only fit enough to sit with the substitutes. Half-fit Fernando Torres should have joined him, but with Ryan Babel and David N'Gog as the alternatives, Torres limped through an hour before being replaced by the Dutchman.
Those who wish to belittle the result in Madrid – Real were not the force they had been, is now the regular cry – would do well to remember this was a side who had just topped a club record nine consecutive wins.
Juande Ramos was in charge just months after taking Tottenham to the bottom of the Premier League, granted – but he was a solid appointment for Real initially, winning 52 points from his first 19 league games.
It was also a side that contained Euro 2008 winners Casillas and Sergio Ramos, Portuguese hard man Pepe, World Cup winner Fabio Cannavaro and one-time Reds target Gabriel Heinze.
In midfield, Fernando Gago and Lassana Diarra were both highly rated; Arjen Robben, Gonzalo Higuain and Raul would make a fearsome attacking trio.
Their depth was also far more impressive. Wesley Sneijder, Rafael van der Vaart and Javier Saviola may not be Galacticos, but all three were good players who had lit up the world stage.
But the Reds prevailed with the midfield axis of Javier Mascherano and Xabi Alonso excellent throughout, while Benayoun had prospered cutting inside and creating even before his winner.
As time ticked down, the travelling support chanted Benitez's name. It had been a memorable 90 minutes following 24 hours everybody wanted to forget.
Liverpool would beat Real 4-0 in the return leg under the piercing Anfield floodlights, but Barrett's closing statement on his match report would prove prophetic: “the sad fact is that their biggest battle may not be with their rival super powers – it could be with themselves.”
The Reds would lose to Chelsea in the last eight, but far more damaging is what would happen internally over the next few years.
Team news:
REAL MADRID: Casillas, Ramos, Pepe, Cannavaro, Heinze, Gago, Diarra, Marcelo (Guti 46), Robben, Higuain, Raul.
Subs not used: Dudek, Metzelder, Miguel Torres, Sneijder, van der Vaart, Saviola
LIVERPOOL: Reina, Arbeloa, Carragher, Skrtel, Aurelio, Mascherano, Alonso, Kuyt (Lucas 90), Benayoun, Riera (Gerrard 87), Torres (Babel 61).
Subs not used: Cavalieri, Dossena, Hyypia, N'Gog
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