Arne Slot explains his MASTERCLASS move that stopped Vinicius Jr and Kylian Mbappe | OneFootball

Arne Slot explained how Liverpool stopped Vinícius Jr. and Kylian Mbappé on Tuesday night. The Reds ran out 1-0 winners over Real Madrid.

Liverpool made it back-to-back wins on Tuesday evening with a fantastic win over Real Madrid. It was an incredible night, with the team playing like world-beaters as they kept the Spaniards at bay.

It was a much-needed performance, too. Liverpool have not found consistency this season, particularly in defence, but this was a complete display.

Real Madrid barely had a decent chance across the 90 minutes, in fact. Liverpool were simply in control and could have won by far more if not for the brilliance of Thibaut Courtois.

But their efforts going forward was only part of it. Real Madrid are one of the best attacking teams in football, with truly world-class attackers.

Liverpool kept a clean sheet here, though, despite struggling to do so all season. So how did they manage that?

Arne Slot revealed how.

Arne Slot's masterclass

Slot gave a post-match interview to CBS Sports, talking to Jamie Carragher about the win and how it came about. The Liverpool boss wasn’t shy to explain exactly what his team did to get the three points.

“I think you need to control almost everything if you play Madrid because they have so many weapons,” Slot said. “But the thing we said was that you either press them really high and aggressive or you go to a complete low block.

“Because if you’re in between, playing against Vinicius Jr and [Kylian] Mbappe - one of the players who has the best deep runs and incredible pace - it’s so hard to control that.

“So ideally we pressed them constantly very high but never, ever give them space behind the last line. And if you do, these three or four times, you run back instead of forward."

This explanation actually came after Slot talked about the need to contain both Vinicius and Mbappe.

“I told [the players] before the game, they’ve scored 26 goals in La Liga with 24 goal contributions from Kylian Mbappe and Vinicius,” explained Slot.

“So if you want to have any chance of winning this game, we need to control those two. I think we did this outstandingly and if you want to talk about an outstanding individual performance, Conor Bradley was, I think, outstanding against Vinicius."

There’s the secret, then. Slot devised a plan to stop the two truly dangerous players for Madrid and it’s safe to say it worked.

Liverpool limited Madrid’s potential to get the ball in behind, while one-on-one battles went in the Reds’ favour whenever the pair dropped deep to get the ball. A magnificent defensive display and exactly what the team needed.