Champions League: Arsenal, Bayern Munich stay perfect, Liverpool beat Real Madrid

Kylian Mbappe has been near-unstoppable this season. At Anfield on Tuesday, he hit a roadblock. Again.

- AGENCIES

For the second year running, the Real Madrid forward had a night to forget on Merseyside as Liverpool won 1-0 in the Champions League, and Mbappe looked a shadow of the player who has been tearing defenses apart all season.

“We were lacking that threat in the final third,” said Madrid coach Xabi Alonso, without naming Mbappe individually.

But the France World Cup winner rarely looked capable of finding a breakthrough against a Liverpool team that has been so defensively fragile for much of the campaign.

Mbappe arrived at Anfield onarun of 21 goals in 17 games and having produced the kind of form that is likely to put him in contention to finally win the Ballon d’Or award. But he managed just three attempts throughout the match, with none of them hitting the target.

Vinicius Junior, too, was largely kept on the fringes of the action.

Liverpool coach Arne Slot said he had sharpened the focus of his players before the match by reminding them of goal contributions made by Mbappe and Vinicius this season.