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The odds will be stacked against Liverpool when they walk out at the Santiago Bernabeu on Wednesday night’s Champions League return leg against Real Madrid.
A 5-2 win in the first leg at Anfield three weeks ago — Liverpool’s heaviest defeat at home in the — left Jurgen Klopp’s side on the brink of elimination.
The champions of Europe, three goals up in their own stadium, against a team beaten by lowly Bournemouth last weekend.
Liverpool need a three-goal win in the 2nd leg to take the tie to extra time and four to knock out Madrid.
But this is Liverpool in the Champions League.
If there is one club in Europe that you can bank on pulling out seemingly impossible tasks, it’s most likely that your answer will be Liverpool.
The club has a special affinity with the Champions League with the European competition providing some of the greatest moments Reds fans have ever experienced.
As the most successful British team in the competition’s history with six titles, Liverpool are the prime side to back in European ties that mere mortal sides will have no chance of winning.
Monchengladbach. Rome. Istanbul. Auxerre. Dortmund. Barcelona.
When it comes to great European fightbacks, Liverpool has its own library, never mind its own chapter.
Often, it must be said, their great deeds have been done at Anfield, with the fervent backing of their home supporters. They won’t have that at the Bernabeu, of course.
But they’ve done it away from home too. They won a European Cup by beating Roma in their own stadium, and came from 3-0 down to defeat an AC Milan side managed by current Real Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti in Istanbul in 2005.
Perhaps Klopp’s words ahead of their last great European miracle, the semi-final win over Barcelona in 2019, could come in handy again this time.
“If it was anybody else, it would be impossible,” he told his players before that game. “But because it’s you, we have a chance.”
While this current Madrid side may be not the powerhouses they were last year, they certainly showed how to flex their muscles when they embarrassed Liverpool.
Not many sides can go to the Bernabeu and put on a near-perfect performance because that is what Liverpool must do if they want to progress further in the competition.
Losses to the Spanish giants in the 2022 and 2018 finals as well as their elimination in the 2020/21 season have certainly given Madrid the upper hand mentally and if this current season is to go by anything, it’ll be a tall task for the Reds to grab a massive result.