Alexis Mac Allister’s superb strike saw Liverpool come from behind to beat Atletico Madrid 2-1 at Anfield as Bradley Barcola went off with “cramp” on an eventful home debut.<\/p>\n
Barcola was making his first start for Liverpool but felt his calf in the second half and the \u00a3123m signing was substituted having missed three good chances to mark the occasion with a goal. It did not impact the result thanks to Mac Allister’s rocket.<\/p>\n
Marcos Llorente had opened the scoring for the Spanish side with his fifth goal against Liverpool when put through well by Julian Alvarez on the Argentine forward’s return to the starting line-up. But that man Dominik Szoboszlai levelled it up before the break.<\/p>\n
![\"Dominik](\"https:\/\/e0.365dm.com\/26\/09\/768x432\/skysports-dominik-szoboszlai_7346484.jpg?20260909205549\")
\n <\/div>\n Dominik Szoboszlai celebrates his equaliser for Liverpool against Atletico Madrid
\n <\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
Curiously, both Liverpool goals came in the immediate aftermath of Barcola chances. Jan Oblak saved to deny him in the build-up to Szoboszlai’s goal, Ronald Araujo cleverly recycling the chance. And Mac Allister blasted in to spare his blushes for the second.<\/p>\n
![\"Mac](\"https:\/\/e0.365dm.com\/26\/09\/768x432\/skysports-alexis-mac-allister_7346503.jpg?20260909211739\")
\n <\/div>\n Mac Allister scores his side’s second goal
\n <\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
Liverpool had drawn their first two Premier League games of the season two apiece, and given the open nature of the game there was a risk of a repeat. But instead Andoni Iraola earned this Anfield victory in his first Champions League match as a head coach.<\/p>\n
The key moments from Anfield<\/h3>\n
1 – CHANCE!<\/strong> Szoboszlai robs Koke but Isak drags his shot wide<\/p>\n 15 – SAVE!<\/strong> Barcola chance in behind on the right but Oblak saves<\/p>\n 17 – GOAL!<\/strong> Alvarez sends Llorente through and he beats Alisson<\/p>\n 27 – SAVE!<\/strong> Alvarez shot from distance tipped just wide by Alisson<\/p>\n 30 – SAVE!<\/strong> Wirtz denied by Oblak after starting the move himself<\/p>\n 40 – GOAL!<\/strong> Araujo’s clever flick puts Szoboszlai in to slot home<\/p>\n 49 – WIDE!<\/strong> Wirtz sends Barcola clean through but he shoots wide<\/p>\n 50 – GOAL!<\/strong> Mac Allister blasts in left-footed just second later<\/p>\n 58 – INJURY!<\/strong> Barcola substituted after going down holding his calf<\/p>\n 88 – OFFSIDE!<\/strong> Frimpong sweeps the ball home but is well offside<\/p>\n Andoni Iraola enjoyed his first win over Diego Simeone in his managerial career having failed to win any of his four prior encounters in LaLiga in charge of Rayo Vallecano.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n Liverpool head coach Andoni Iraola<\/strong> speaking about Bradley Barcola <\/strong>in the press conference:<\/em><\/p>\n “No, it’s cramp. It’s just cramp, there is no injury. With Bradley, it’s about building his physical condition.<\/p>\n “We don’t really know, or we didn’t know until now probably, how much he can play, because he hasn’t had any minutes in pre-season for PSG.<\/p>\n “He played 30 the other day. Today we had some question marks, how many minutes he can give us, and probably now we know.<\/p>\n “And I’m very happy because also he has had two very clear chances against the keeper. He hasn’t scored, but I want him there. That is where he has to make the difference – arriving to those spots, those positions.<\/p>\n “And I’m very happy because in, I don’t know how many minutes he’s played, two times against the keeper is a good sign with Bradley.”<\/p>\n Sky Sports’ Adam Bate<\/strong> at Anfield:<\/em><\/p>\n Barcola might have scored twice in the first half on his Anfield bow and missed a big chance at the start of the second but it was still a promising performance. He has been used on the left by Paris Saint-Germain but showed his versatility playing from the right.<\/p>\n His fitness looked sharper than his finishing and it did not take long for him to win over the Kop, his name being chanted inside 15 minutes when he tracked back to shut down an early Atletico counter-attack. That pace looks like it will be a real weapon for Iraola.<\/p>\n The worry was the sight of him trudging off before the hour. The Liverpool boss had stressed the need to manage Barcola given that he had not been involved in pre-season. Iraola needs him up to speed quickly. On this evidence, he can make a difference.<\/p>\n Alexis Mac Allister’s superb strike saw Liverpool come from behind to beat Atletico Madrid 2-1…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-premier-league"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/skysports-alexis-mac-allister_7346585.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Iraola finally beats Simeone<\/h4>\n<\/p>\n
Iraola: Just cramp for Barcola<\/h3>\n
![\"Barcola's](\"https:\/\/e0.365dm.com\/26\/09\/768x432\/skysports-bradley-barcola-liverpool_7346578.jpg?20260909222102\")
\n <\/div>
\n Barcola’s touch map and shot map for Liverpool against Atletico Madrid
\n <\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nAnalysis: Barcola’s Anfield debut<\/h3>\n
![\"Bradley](\"https:\/\/e0.365dm.com\/26\/09\/768x432\/skysports-bradley-barcola-liverpool_7346411.jpg?20260909201234\")
\n <\/div>
\n Bradley Barcola on his full Liverpool debut against Atletico Madrid at Anfield
\n <\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nWhat the result means and next fixtures…<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"