Mac Allister said Liverpool would not offer him a new contract, and a day later he beat Atletico from 20 yards
Liverpool came from behind to win their Champions League opener 2-1 at Anfield. Marcos Llorente scored against them for the fifth time, all five at their ground, and it still was not enough.
Sep 10, 2026
Alexis Mac Allister spent Tuesday in a press room at Anfield explaining, without much cover, that Liverpool had decided not to offer him a new contract. On Wednesday night he hit a ball from 20 yards that went in off the inside of the left post and beat Atletico Madrid. Footballers are not usually granted a reply that quick.
Liverpool were behind after 17 minutes
Andoni Iraola’s first Champions League team as Liverpool head coach started the way none of them wanted. Marcos Llorente ran onto a through ball, got in behind, and clipped a finish over Alisson Becker with the goalkeeper already committed. Seventeen minutes gone, and Atletico had the sort of lead Diego Simeone’s sides have made a career out of protecting.
Liverpool had begun the night with a chance inside 15 seconds, Dominik Szoboszlai driving into space and finding Alexander Isak, whose low shot across the face went past the far post. After Llorente scored, Alisson had to stretch to turn away a Julian Alvarez effort from outside the area that was heading for the corner.
Jan Oblak then had the busiest ten minutes of his evening. He blocked Bradley Barcola from a tight angle, saved from Florian Wirtz after Isak’s scooped pass, and pushed away another Barcola finish. Seconds after that last one, a bouncing ball in the box was flicked on by Ronald Araujo and Szoboszlai turned it in from close range. Level at the break, and Iraola later said he blamed himself for the start.
“Atletico has used a structure that they haven’t used before this season and it has cost us a little bit to match up properly,” he said. “In the second half I think we were the best team.”
The goal that answered Tuesday’s press conference
Mac Allister’s winner arrived five minutes after the restart. Rio Ngumoha, 18 and handed a start, worked space in the channel and crossed. The ball ricocheted out to the edge of the box, and Mac Allister met it first time. Oblak did not move.
What made it land differently was the timing. The day before, the Argentina midfielder had sat in front of reporters and said Liverpool were “not in a position” to renew him, that the news made him “very, very sad”, and that watching Szoboszlai and Ryan Gravenberch sign long-term deals had sharpened it.
“Everyone can see I give my 100 per cent for this football club, every single day in training and games,” he said on Tuesday. “I see Dominik and Ryan renewing their contracts, and that makes me very happy because they deserve it, but at the same time it makes me a little bit sad that I didn’t get mine.”
He is 27, has two years left on the deal he signed when he joined from Brighton in 2023, and won a Premier League title and a League Cup in between. He also confirmed there were offers to leave this summer and that he turned them down. Asked whether he had a point to prove, he said he did not think so, then added that he still had to show the level he can perform at. The 50th minute at Anfield was a reasonable place to start.
Iraola, asked about him afterwards, kept it to the football. “Lovely goal from Alexis, lovely from Dom Szoboszlai,” he said. “It’s good also that midfielders can add goals because we have midfielders that naturally are going to arrive to the box.”
Llorente keeps scoring at Anfield and Atletico keep losing there
Llorente’s goal was his fifth against Liverpool, and every one of them has been scored at Anfield. He got two in extra time in the round of 16 in March 2020, two more in the league phase in September 2025, and now this. It makes him the visiting player with the most Champions League goals at Anfield, one clear of Karim Benzema. He has also now scored more Champions League goals at Liverpool’s ground than at Atletico’s own, where his tally is three.
Atletico have lost two of those three Anfield nights. The 2020 tie is the exception that stops the record being a straight joke, because they went through 4-2 on aggregate after winning 3-2 in extra time. The two since have simply been defeats. Llorente named his dog Anfield. The dog has better memories of the place than the club does.
Three comebacks in four games under Iraola
Liverpool were playing their opening match of a 30th season in the European Cup, in front of 59,870. They also spent a chunk of the second half looking more likely to add a third than to concede. Robin Le Normand blocked an Isak effort at close range, and Jeremie Frimpong put the ball in the net late from an offside position.
Barcola, making his first start for the club, signalled to the bench on the hour and was replaced by Victor Munoz, with Frimpong coming on at the same time. Cody Gakpo had missed the game with a minor adductor problem.
Iraola summed up his first month himself. “I think it’s in four games it’s three times that we’ve come back somehow,” he said. “I think it shows that players are pushing, they are showing character and now it’s a matter of getting everything cleaner and sharper.”
Cleaner and sharper can wait. Liverpool go to LASK next month with three points and a midfielder who has stopped talking about his contract.