The best team in Europe against the best team in Europe? Real Madrid’s case to be deemed the outstanding side last season felt almost watertight. They were Champions League winners, albeit displaying their now familiar habit of flirting with an exit before staging acts of escapology. They won LaLiga by eight points, losing a solitary game out of 38.
The meaningful prizes do not come from being the best in autumn – this time two years ago, Napoli were arguably the finest team on the continent, yet only managed to reach the last 16 in Europe – but Liverpool were alone in possessing a 100 percent record after the first four matchdays of the revamped Champions League. They have an eight-point lead at the Premier League summit. They have won 16 of 18 matches under Arne Slot.
Real have lost three of their last five against anyone. Should they suffer a third defeat in four Champions League outings, their potential path to eventual glory may become more of an obstacle course than usual: currently 21st, a top-eight finish would feel implausible with another pointless outing. Real could be the most glamorous participant in the new play-off round.
If Slot has the chance to shift the balance of power on the continent, it may have relevance to both Liverpool’s past and future. The Dutchman has been burdened with comparisons to his predecessor. For once, however, he need not fear them.
Jurgen Klopp faced Real six times as Liverpool manager, losing five, getting a draw that still brought defeat over two legs. Slot even used Real’s comeback from 2-0 down to win 5-2 at Anfield in 2023 to inspire his Feyenoord team. Real were Klopp’s kryptonite, overcoming Liverpool in the 2018 and 2022 finals. They were tales of two goalkeepers: Loris Karius’ traumatic night in Kyiv in 2018, Thibaut Courtois’ evening of invincibility in Paris four years later. “I don’t really look into owing people one or revenge,” said left-back Andy Robertson. “And 2018 was so important for our journey, no one expected us to be in the final. But 2022 hurt a lot more. Their goalkeeper was man of the match, which tells you a lot.”
Courtois will be at Anfield but Liverpool’s other nemesis misses a reunion. Vinicius Junior got the winner in the 2022 final. He has five goals in his last five meetings with the Merseysiders but has been ruled out with a hamstring injury. He has tormented Trent Alexander-Arnold in a way few others have. Should the Liverpudlian join Real next summer, part of his motivation, besides his stated ambition to win the Ballon d’Or and the probability he would add at least one more Champions League to his medal collection, may be simply to avoid facing the Brazilian in anything other than training.
Alexander-Arnold will not start Wednesday’s match, either; he may be able to play a few minutes as a substitute. It might not mean that Real’s search for a right-back extends to seeing if Conor Bradley, named by some fans as ‘the Castlederg Cafu’, could instead be ‘the Castlederg Carvajal’. Yet Alexander-Arnold’s situation is instructive.
Only two clubs have won the European Cup more than Liverpool. Over the last seven seasons, no one has been in more finals. “I think Real Madrid and Manchester City dominated Europe and the league for a few years now, combined with Liverpool,” said Slot. Yet they may not be equals. The path from Anfield to the Bernabeu is well trodden: by Xabi Alonso and Alvaro Arbeloa, Michael Owen and Steve McManaman, the latter pair, like Alexander-Arnold, products of Liverpool’s youth system, footballers who might otherwise have been one-club men. McManaman had few reasons to regret his choice; Owen, later taunted with chants of “Where were you in Istanbul?” on a return to Liverpool, may have more.
Collectively, however, the impression is that Real remain the ultimate destination club. The transfer target to elude Klopp, the man who might have been the face of ‘Liverpool 2.0’, plays at Anfield on Wednesday: but Liverpool admitted defeat in their attempts to persuade Jude Bellingham to swap Dortmund for Merseyside.
Real’s interest altered the equation: so, too, Liverpool’s troubled 2022-23, meaning they would not be able to offer Champions League football and that their budget for a midfield overhaul would have to be split several ways. Liverpool could instead field a central trio of men they bought instead, in Alexis Mac Allister, Dominik Szoboszlai and Ryan Gravenberch.
If Bellingham may seek to persuade his friend Alexander-Arnold to join him at the Bernabeu, Liverpool have adopted another approach. Real were petulantly annoyed they did not win the Ballon d’Or this year, though Vinicius, Bellingham and Dani Carvajal came second, third and fourth in the vote. When Owen joined Zinedine Zidane, Luis Figo and Ronaldo in the Spanish capital in 2004-05, Real had four past winners. Liverpool nevertheless won the Champions League that season.
The Reds have less stardust; their biggest name, Mohamed Salah, may yet leave next summer, with a new contract not yet agreed. And yet the eagerness of both Salah and captain Virgil van Dijk to re-sign indicates that Liverpool still have an allure.
Part of it used to stem from Klopp and some has long come from the prospect of great European nights at Anfield. Liverpool had them against many clubs – Barcelona and Borussia Dortmund, Manchester United and City, Napoli and Roma – under Klopp, but not Real.
Now Slot has a rare chance to surpass his predecessor and, while Klopp made them champions of Europe, to get a result which strengthens their claim to be the best side on the continent right now.