After facing each other in two of the last five Champions League finals and also crossing swords a couple of seasons ago in the quarterfinals of the top continental competition, Liverpool and Real Madrid will fight the first round of another tie this Tuesday at Anfield that will swell the legend of one of the great classics of European football.
The Merseyside temple, refuge of a squad whose six European Cups place it among the football aristocracy, receives a visit from the absolute monarch of the Old Continent with its fourteen ‘orejonas’, the last of which traveled from Paris to the Santiago Bernabéu ago just 269 days, after a goal from Vinicius and a stratospheric performance from Courtois sealed the same fate at the Stade de France that the ‘reds’ had faced four years earlier at the Kiev Olympics, then with Bale and Karius assuming the roles hero and villain, respectively.
The wounds opened by Real Madrid in the Ukrainian and French capitals still haunt Liverpool, which is crying out for revenge against Carlo Ancelotti’s team after rearming in the last week. The victories over Everton and Newcastle have returned to Jürgen Klopp’s troops part of the self-esteem lost during a stormy season.
Knocked out of the Carabao Cup by Manchester City in December and also eliminated from the FA Cup in January by Brighton, the ‘reds’ squandered any option to fight for the Premier League before the break for the World Cup in Qatar and welcomed with regret the pairing with the Chamartín team that agreed to the draw for the round of 16 of the Champions League. The rear was leaking and the infirmary was full to overflowing. The prospects were so bleak that there was talk of an end of the cycle.
But now the patient has a better face. “We have won two games in a row and confidence has returned,” the Dutchman Cody Gakpo remarked on Monday, a winter signing who, after a dubious start as a ‘red’, has begun to leave his mark with two goals in the last two days of the Premier . «These two victories can make it seem that we are better. And yes, it can be, but we have to fight with everything we have,” added a cautious Klopp, although hopeful. «If it had been a few weeks ago, it would have been different. It’s the right time to play the game. We have to use this competition to our advantage. We have to play two super games. Real Madrid never misses an opportunity and that is the difference”, the Teuton had an impact.
The return of Firmino and Jota widens the range of attacking options for Liverpool, despite the fact that Luis Díaz is still in the dry dock and Darwin Núñez left with his shoulder touched on Saturday at St. James’ Park, where the Uruguayan put an end to six games without scoring in the Premier. Klopp has also brought back Van Dijk, who missed seven games with a hamstring injury but was able to complete the 90th minute against Newcastle. Rescuing a good version of the Breda center-back seems crucial for Liverpool to short-cut an opponent who transforms when he hears the Champions League anthem. “If you win the competition so many times, you can probably think that it belongs to you and maybe they are right,” explained his coach.
Benzema Territory
Real Madrid’s prowess in their fetish tournament reached its culmination in the knockout phase last year, where the Whites successively knocked PSG, Chelsea and Manchester City down before defeating Liverpool in the Paris final. Emulating that epic journey, while relieving it of extreme suffering if possible, is the goal that Ancelotti’s battalion has set for itself, which also arrives relaunched to the lawsuit and adding soldiers to the cause.
The league victories against Elche and Osasuna, together with winning the Club World Cup, have revitalized the current European champion, who will appear at Anfield again with Benzema as their banner. After resting in Pamplona, the man from Lyon, who has scored 15 goals in 21 games against English teams in the Champions League but still has a clean counter in this edition of the tournament, will once again occupy the spearhead, with Valverde and Vinicius in the sides. The main question is whether Ancelotti will keep Rüdiger as Militao’s companion at the rear or will opt for Nacho, repeating the duo that built an insurmountable wall around Courtois two years ago at Anfield.
-Probable alignments:
Liverpool: Alisson, Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson, Henderson, Fabinho, Bajcetic, Salah, Darwin Núñez y Gakpo.
Real Madrid: Courtois, Carvajal, Militao, Nacho, Alaba, Camavinga, Modric, Ceballos, Valverde, Benzema and Vinicius.
Referee: Istvan Kovacs (Romania).
Time: 9:00 p.m.
Estadio: Anfield.
TV: Movistar Champions League