Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois made a glaring blunder in his side's UEFA Champions League clash with Liverpool on Tuesday (February 21). An old tweet from the Belgian shot-stopper has resurfaced following a moment to forget at Anfield.
Courtois miscontrolled a simple pass back from Dani Carvajal in the 14th minute, with Jurgen Klopp's side leading 1-0. The ball deflected off the former Chelsea keeper's knee and into Mohamed Salah's path. The Egyptian made no mistake in burying it past the Real Madrid custodian.
The Belgian might want to delete an old tweet he once posted. He said while captioning a picture of him making a save:
"Keep your eye on the ball."
Courtois will be kicking himself that he didn't heed his own advice as he plunged Real Madrid's hopes of advancing past Liverpool into jeopardy. However, Vinicius Junior spared his blushes with a 15-minute brace to restore parity. Fortunately, for Courtois, the Reds' own goalkeeper Alisson Becker suffered a similar slip-up, smashing the ball at the Los Blancos forward for the equaliser.
Carlo Ancelotti's side went on to take the lead through an Eder Militao bullet header in the 47th minute before a Karim Benzema brace gave Madrid a three-goal lead. Darwin Nunez's opener in the fourth minute feels like a lifetime ago in what has been a Champions League last 16 first leg to forget for the Reds.
Salah breaks record thanks to Courtois' mistake in Liverpool's clash with Real Madrid
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Courtois' gift to Salah looked to put Liverpool in the driving seat of the last 16 tie. The Egyptian bagged his 19th goal of the season. He also became the Merseysider's highest all-time goalscorer in the Champions League with his 42nd strike, eclipsing Kop legend Steven Gerrard.
Before that, Salah had assisted Nunez for the opener, and that assist took the Reds forward to 13 in Europe's elite club competition. That's more than any other Liverpool player in history.
Salah currently leads the goalscoring ranks in the European tournament, with eight in seven games. The Anfield faithful will be praying that he has more of an impact with Madrid having a commanding lead.
The Egyptian has always been humble regarding breaking records. He said when becoming the top scorer in the 2020 UEFA Champions League campaign (via LiverpoolScore):
“It’s a great feeling, of course, to be the top scorer for the club (in the Champions League), something I’m proud of. I need to keep going like that and scoring more goals and make the gap maybe bigger between me and the others."