They will always have the corner. Liverpool’s greatest moment in the two decades since Istanbul was the product of extreme creativity, preternatural calmness and a precocious talent who, on a surreal Anfield night, eliminated Lionel Messi and Barcelona. Trent Alexander-Arnold to Divock Origi, catching everyone else unaware, Liverpool 4 Barcelona 0, the Champions League’s most celebrated semi-final comeback, Jurgen Klopp’s favourite assist of his eight and a half years on Merseyside.
So Alexander-Arnold’s legacy at Liverpool was secure when he was barely out of his teens. And if one way of augmenting it was to become a lifer, to join Ian Callaghan, Jamie Carragher and Steven Gerrard in Anfield’s 700 club, it may be the vision that rendered him a unique right-back that, while nothing is formalised yet, will take him to Real Madrid. Alexander-Arnold has often looked long, launching some extraordinary passes over vast distances. For years, he has had Anfield in the foreground, but spotted the Bernabeu in the distance.
