Ireland's Caoimhin Kelleher saves Kylian Mbappe penalty as Liverpool pile more misery on Real Madrid

Caoimhin Kelleher saved Kylian Mbappe’s penalty on a night when the Ireland No1 had a stormer.

The Cork man saved Mbappe’s spot kick as Liverpool defeated Real Madrid 2-0 at Anfield to record their fifth win on the trot in the Champions League.

As for Madrid, they have now lost three games out of five in this campaign to leave their chances of missing out on qualifying for the next round.

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But the night belonged to Cork’s Kelleher. Aside from the penalty, he was flawless.

In a post match interview, Kelleher said: “I felt confident and thankfully it went my way.

“It is a big result. We wanted to put in a performance and thankfully the lads did well.

“We wanted to get a win against them because they have had a few wins over us recently.”

Afterwards RTE panellist Kevin Doyle said: “I fancied Caoimhin to save it. I have seen him make a few penalty saves recently.

“You nearly feel for Mbappe because people are waiting for him to be that wonderkid but his confidence is low.

“His work rate off the ball is poor; his touch was poor; his passing was poor.

“As for Caoimhin, he has been excellent. One of his strengths is his coolness under pressure. He has had a taste for first team football. He will be top of the list for any club that wants a goalkeeper.

“Allison has done little wrong in his time at Liverpool.”

Fellow panellist, Richie Sadlier, said: “We have an Irish goalkeeper making a clean sheet in the Champions League. It is just brilliant.

“I wonder are there conversations at Liverpool FC? I don’t think you can carry both in the squad for much longer. Both want to be No1. There is not room for the two of them at the same club.

“The club hold all the cards.

“They can tell Kelleher: ‘because our goalkeeper is injury prone, you are staying’. He wants to go and play. That is understandable.”

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