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Following Real Madrid's triumph over Valencia, Xabi Alonso quickly shifted his focus to Liverpool.
The Reds are set to face the La Liga team on Tuesday in their fourth Champions League game of the season. Trent Alexander-Arnold could feature against his former club after leaving during the summer, and the England international has spoken about Liverpool ahead of the game.
Arne Slot's players have bagged six points from their first three games in this season's tournament, thanks to victories against Atletico Madrid and Eintracht Frankfurt. Despite suffering four consecutive Premier League losses, Liverpool managed to bounce back with a 2-0 win against Aston Villa at Anfield on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Madrid celebrated a 4-0 victory over Valencia in La Liga on Saturday. As soon as the final whistle blew at the Santiago Bernabeu, Alonso's attention was firmly on Liverpool.
This will mark the second time that Alonso has returned to Anfield as a manager, following Bayer Leverkusen's 4-0 defeat to Liverpool in last season's Champions League.
"Things turned out well. In the second half, we were able to manage the game well because we knew we had a match on Tuesday," Alonso shared with reporters on Saturday.
"We had to be smart because some players had played a lot of minutes, and a lot of things went well. We don't want to relax, and we want to approach every game with the necessary mental preparation.
"Today we did that. Now it's time for Tuesday in the Champions League and Sunday in Vallecas.
"Starting tomorrow, it's Liverpool and Liverpool."
Liverpool manager Arne Slot expressed his satisfaction after watching his side end their losing run with a convincing win over Villa.
"Happy with the result, with the performance and what I saw today, not only from the players but also the support we got from the fans, was what we needed today," Slot remarked on Saturday.
"Maybe we were a bit more on the lucky side than we've been in the last few weeks, where in my opinion we were also unlucky.
"So, the mistake of their goalkeeper and the deflection led to two of our goals.
"These are the margins we are talking about. I think in other games we've created more from open play than we did today. But in football it's about results, not about the chances you create from open play."
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