Liverpool were given no hope in their Champions League match against Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernebeu especially given that they had lost heavily to the same opponents a week ago.

This combined with a weakened starting line-up from Brendan Rodgers appeared to destroy any hopes for the few travelling Liverpool supporters. The match finished as a 1-0 defeat for the Reds. A number of players who are not regularly part of the first team like Kolo Toure and Fabio Borini started the match. Touré has not started a league match this season, but he managed to put in a fine performance against an impressive attacking line-up.

Possessing some of the best place in the world like Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema, Real Madrid threatened to comfortably outscore their opponents. This never happened after Touré managed to contain Ronaldo using all his experience. The 33-year-old said after the match that he is extremely proud of the performance from his teammates. Despite being given no hope by many just ahead of the match, they came close to getting the point. It remains to be seen if Touré will be able to keep his place, after this great performance, for the weekend’s match against Chelsea.

It has been regarded that Rodgers named a weakened line-up due to the Chelsea match in mind. “I know we lost but I am very happy because we played a really good game.At end of the day everyone worked hard and showed so much determination.We had a lot of players out there who haven't played many games this season but we showed what a good squad we have.It doesn't matter what players play here, they will give 100%. You have to be ready and we showed that,” said the defender. Touré is widely expected to leave Liverpool at the end of the season.