The new episode in the Liverpool – Real Madrid rivalry will be set on Wednesday evening in the Champions League game of the week.
After 4 matchdays all four points are Arne Slot’s side, making them the only club in the competition with 12 perfect points and 17 places better than the indiferent holders in the 36-teams.
And it is only right that Slot is predesigned to welcome Carlo Ancelotti after becoming a member of an elite group of managers on Sunday as Mohamed Salah’s Liverpool clinched a hard-fought 3-2 victory against Southampton in the top versus bottom fixture.
Before making more contract-related headlines with explosive post-game comments, the unstoppable Salah had the last laugh on the wet and windy South Coast with the decisive goals for Slot’s win in the 10th of the 12 Premier League games he has taken charge of.
Hiddink and only Ancelotti himself can boast at least an equal record for the first 12 games in the competition, which offered Liverpool another Manchester City collapse this week and increase an already virtually insurmountable eight-point cushion at the top of the table with just Sunday’s clash against the defending champions.
Still superior to all their Champions League rivals, Liverpool’s 4-0 destruction of Bayer Leverkusen on matchday four means that the only team which has not lost in the 2024-25 competition; only in the 2021-22 season did Liverpool start the Champions League with five wins on the bounce.
Liverpool’s performance at St Mary’s was sloppy and disjointed at times, but Salah’s immortality ensures that the Reds have found the back of the net in every single one of their last six games in all competitions and it cannot be long now until they snap their woeful run against the champions.
Liverpool is suffering from a painful eight-game losing streak against Real Madrid, who have won seven and drawn one of their past eight encounters with their Merseyside rivals since a 4-0 thumping at Anfield back in 2009. This includes the 2018 and 2022 championships.
But in the new competition, Ancelotti's team has already failed two tests of their title credentials: the shocking 1-0 loss to Lille in October and the humiliating 3-1 home loss to AC Milan on November 5, in which former Blancos striker Alvaro Morata came back to haunt his former employers.
Smack dab in the midst of the UCL rankings, Real Madrid's 18th-place finish would not even qualify them for a seeded playoff road, but the 15-time European champions seem to have changed their ways since losing to Milan.
After defeating Osasuna for four goals without a response prior to the international break and easily defeating Leganes 3-0 over the weekend, Wednesday's visitors have won their last two La Liga games by an overall score of 7-0, bringing them within four points of a faltering Barcelona at the top of the standings.
They humiliated Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool 5-2 in the 2022-23 UCL last 16 before finishing the formalities with a 1-0 second-leg victory in the Spanish capital, so the holders' recent recollections of playing in front of the Kop are as positive as they can be.
The Dutchman has ruled out starting, but Slot has confirmed that he will be in the squad to face his alleged admirers on Wednesday. The latter was back in training on Tuesday.
Two South American players, Alexis Mac Allister and Luis Diaz, should push their way back into the starting lineup for the hosts in lieu of Curtis Jones and Cody Gakpo.
For Los Blancos, things haven't been so simple. In order to get closer to the top eight, where automatic qualification for the round of 16 is granted, Carlo Ancelotti's team needs to win at Anfield after losing two of their last four games.
Everything you need to know about Liverpool and Real Madrid's most recent meeting is provided here.
Three of Reds' best players are undoubtedly out due to fitness issues, with Caoimhin Kelleher expected to stay in goal while Alisson recovers. Kostas Tsimikas will be sidelined for a brief period of time due to an ankle injury sustained during training, while Diogo Jota will not be available.
