Liverpool will be hoping to avenge their UCL final defeat to Los Blancos last May, but this will be a stiff test against the LaLiga giants. The Reds haven’t won any of their last six meetings with Real Madrid, drawing one and losing five of these games – this is their longest ever run of winless games against a single opponent in the history of the European Cup/Champions League.

After an awful start to 2023 (and season in general), Liverpool will hope their last two results mean that they have turned the corner. Back-to-back 2-0 victories against rivals Everton and Newcastle United ended a sequence of just one win in seven competitive games, which included poor Premier League defeats to Brentford, Brighton and Wolves, plus an FA Cup elimination away in Brighton at the fourth-round stage.

January signing Cody Gakpo has scored in both of Liverpool’s recent wins following his move from PSV, while Darwin Núñez scored for just the second time in 10 post-World Cup appearances in the 2-0 victory at Newcastle on Saturday evening.

They will miss Thiago for this match, which is an important miss because Liverpool will try to make a good pressure in the midfield, which could be the key of this match. They’ll try to put a high pace and pressure, but this is what they tried in the recent meetings against Madrid, always unsuccessfully.

In the group stage, despite finishing level on points with Serie A leaders Napoli in Group A (15 each), Liverpool ended in second place due to inferior head-to-head goal difference. They still qualified ahead of Ajax and Rangers to set up this last 16 match with Real Madrid, however. The total goals scored by Liverpool in the 2022-23 competition (17) is below that of only Benfica (18) Bayern Munich (19) and Napoli (20).

On the other hand, Real Madrid have had a ridiculously busy 2023, with the Spanish club having already played 14 matches this year – six more than opponents Liverpool. Ancelotti’s side have had to make long trips to Saudi Arabia to play in the Spanish Super Cup (which they lost in the final to rivals Barcelona) and Morocco to play – and win – the FIFA Club World Cup.

Real are currently on a four-game winning streak following a LaLiga defeat at Mallorca (1-0) on 5 February. Their winning run began with semi-final and final wins in the FIFA CWC against Al Ahly and Al Hilal respectively, before back-to-back LaLiga victories versus Elche and Osasuna without conceding a goal. Uruguayan midfielder Federico Valverde has scored four goals across these four games, while Marco Asensio has netted in both LaLiga matches in this run. They are important players to be back in form for this fixture.

Real Madrid’s form in the UCL this season was enough to see them top Group F on the way to making it to the round of 16. Their four wins from six games (D1 L1) placed them above RB Leipzig, Shakhtar Donetsk and Celtic with 13 points, with their only group stage defeat coming on MD5 away in Leipzig (3-2).

Seeing how Napoli outplayed Liverpool (4:1) and how Madrid managed to beat them in all the recent meetings, it’s logical to think that Madrid and Ancelotti knows perfectly how to play against Liverpool and the key to at least avoid a defeat here. Real will be making their fourth trip to Anfield to face Liverpool in the UEFA Champions League, where they lost the first game there in March 2009, suffering a humiliating 4-0 defeat, but haven’t conceded a goal in their last two visits, winning 3-0 in October 2014 and drawing 0-0 most recently in April 2021.

本译文使用有道机器翻译，仅供参考：

利物浦希望能够为去年五月在欧冠决赛中输给白衣军团的失利复仇，但这将是对西甲豪门的严峻考验。红魔在最近6次与皇马的交手中一胜未胜，其中1平5负——这是他们在欧冠历史上最长的一次对阵单一对手的无胜记录。

在2023年(以及整个赛季)糟糕的开局之后，利物浦希望最近两场比赛的结果意味着他们已经度过了难关。连续2-0战胜对手埃弗顿和纽卡斯尔联队，结束了连续7场正式比赛的一场胜利，其中包括在英超联赛中输给布伦特福德、布莱顿和狼队，加上足总杯第四轮客场被布莱顿淘汰。

今年1月从埃因霍温转会过来的科迪·加克波在利物浦最近的两场胜利中都有进球，而达尔文Núñez在周六晚上2-0战胜纽卡斯尔的比赛中，在世界杯后的10场比赛中第二次进球。

他们将在这场比赛中错过蒂亚戈，这是一个重要的缺席，因为利物浦将试图在中场制造良好的压力，这可能是这场比赛的关键。他们会努力提高节奏和压力，但这就是他们在最近对阵马德里的比赛中所做的，总是不成功。

在小组赛阶段，尽管在A组与意甲领头羊那不勒斯(各15分)积分相同，但由于净胜球差距较小，利物浦排在第二。然而，他们仍然领先阿贾克斯和流浪者，在16强对阵皇家马德里。利物浦在2022-23赛季的总进球数(17个)仅低于本菲卡(18个)、拜仁慕尼黑(19个)和那不勒斯(20个)。

另一方面，皇马在2023年的比赛非常繁忙，这家西班牙俱乐部今年已经踢了14场比赛，比对手利物浦多6场。安切洛蒂的球队不得不长途跋涉到沙特阿拉伯参加西班牙超级杯(他们在决赛中输给了对手巴塞罗那)和摩洛哥参加并赢得了国际足联世俱杯。

在2月5日西甲0 - 1输给马洛卡之后，皇马目前正处于四连胜状态。他们的连胜始于在国际足联CWC半决赛和决赛中分别战胜阿赫利和希拉尔，然后在西甲联赛中连续战胜埃尔切和奥萨苏纳，没有失球。乌拉圭中场费德里科·巴尔韦德在这四场比赛中打进了四球，而马可·阿森西奥在这两场西甲比赛中都有进球。他们是重要的球员，必须在这场比赛中恢复状态。

皇马本赛季在UCL的表现足以让他们在进入16强的道路上以F组第一的身份出线。他们在6场比赛中取得了4场胜利(D1 L1)，积13分领先于莱比锡RB，顿涅茨克矿工和凯尔特人，他们唯一的小组赛失利是在MD5客场对阵莱比锡(3-2)。

看看那不勒斯是如何以4:1击败利物浦的，以及马德里是如何在最近的比赛中击败他们的，我们很自然地认为马德里和安切洛蒂完全知道如何对阵利物浦，以及至少避免在这里失败的关键。皇马将第四次来到安菲尔德，在欧冠联赛中对阵利物浦。2009年3月，他们在安菲尔德输掉了第一场比赛，以0比4的耻辱性失利，但在最近两次访问安菲尔德期间没有丢球，2014年10月以3比0取胜，最近一次是在2021年4月以0比0战平。