Liverpool make the journey to the Spanish capital to face Real Madrid for the second leg of the UEFA Champions League round of 16 knockout stages having fallen behind in the first leg fixture. Carlo Ancelloti's side fought back 2-0 down to record a stellar victory of 5-2 at the Anfield Stadium. Only the most calamitous of calamitous collapses would see the tickets to the quarter-finals change hands. That is; if the Reds can mount a comeback which is something not surprising especially in Europe's elite competition. Rivalling Courtois for blunder of the night with a pass straight to the leg of Vinicius Junior, Alisson Becker conceded twice to the Brazilian starlet in the remaining minutes of the first half, before Eder Militao's header and Karim Benzema's brace put the cherry on a famous Merseyside mauling.

From the last 27 times that Real Madrid have won the first leg fixture of a Champions League tie away from home, they have progressed to the next round from 26 of them. The only exemption was during the 2018-19 campaign when they went down to an Erik Ten Hag led Ajax. They will, however, not be taking any leaves out of the Dutch man's book in tonight's game following Manchester United 7-0 humiliation at the Anfield Stadium a few days ago. A timely repeat of their 7-0 demolition of Manchester United at the Bernabeu would no doubt go down as the greatest Champions League result on record, but a week is a long time in football, as evidenced by Liverpool's flat performance in their shock defeat to Bournemouth on Saturday.

It is worth noting, however, that Liverpool are no novices when it comes to spectacular European comebacks - coming from 3-0 down to defeat Barcelona 4-3 on aggregate in the 2018-19 campaign but the absence of an enthusiastic packed Anfield Stadium can make a comeback in this case in point far from ideal. Furthermore, Jurgen klopp's men only boast of two wins from their last eight matches on the road. Adding further to the Reds woos is that they are winless to the Los Blancos since storming to victory in the quarter-finals of the 2008-09 campaign. It will be a night to behold at the Santiago Bernabeu tonight as football fans can be assured that goals will rain at the stadium as some of Europe's top elite teams face off.