Real Madrid won last season’s Champions League and will provide a big test for Liverpool manager Arne Slot as they travel to Anfield looking to revive their European campaign
Arne Slot continues to pass every test thrown at him as Liverpool manager.
Now one of football’s ultimate examinations; the European giant that is Real Madrid. And the Dutchman admits his side will take on an outfit who never know when they’re beaten.
The Reds sit top of the Premier League with only Nottingham Forest able to take three points from them so far this term on the domestic front. While in Europe, they’ve seen off AC Milan, Bologna, RB Leipzig and Bayer Leverkusen to sit pretty at the top of the new Champions League table with a 100 per cent record.
But now for the visit of the current holders of Europe’s most coveted crown as 15-time winners Real and the competition’s most successful manager in Carlo Ancelotti arrive at Anfield. It is a side which has become renowned for always finding a way to win as they proved in last season’s success and in 2022, when they beat Liverpool in the final.
“I cannot talk for all the other teams they face but when I worked at my former club I said many times we should take the advantage of Madrid, that they always find a way to win,” said former Feyenoord boss Slot. “They can win it in different ways and if it is difficult for them they can still win a game and that is probably one of the reasons – apart from them having so much quality – that they won this tournament a lot.
“I can only speak for myself but maybe the players feel the same, if we are fortunate enough to be a goal up or even more up we still are aware of the fact, especially because of what we experienced two years ago, that the game will never be done until the referee blows his whistle. In general it is like this but I think we all feel it against Real Madrid a but more than to some other clubs we face.”
It was in the 2022-23 campaign when Real came to Anfield and trailed by two goals before leaving Merseyside with a 5-2 advantage in the last-16 tie they would win 6-2 on aggregate. Liverpool have not tasted victory against the Spanish giants since 2009, with two final defeats in the eight games without a win, meaning Slot can do something Jurgen Klopp never achieved by beating Los Blancos with the Reds.
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But this is a different looking Real who are still acclimatising to the introduction of Kylian Mbappe and will be without the injured Vinicius Jr while having lost two of their four games so far in Europe this season. Jude Bellingham, who was heavily linked with a move to Liverpool before he joined Madrid, will make his Anfield debut tonight.
He won’t face pal Trent Alexander-Arnold from the start at least with the right-back not fit enough to play 90 minutes but may feature late on as he recovers from a hamstring injury. The Real star sidestepped a question about if he would like to see his England team-mate become his club-mate next season with Alexander-Arnold out of contract at Liverpool in the summer.
“He’s a Liverpool player and it would be disrespectful to come to his home with a big game and talk about something that could be misconstrued so it’s important to take that pressure off him,” said Bellingham.
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