As we head into the final UEFA Champions League round of 16 games on Wednesday, two of European football’s most decorated clubs face-off in a second leg clash that sees Liverpool trying to climb a mountain away at Real Madrid.
We spoke exclusively to Bet9ja Ambassador Victor Ikpeba who gave us his thoughts on what looks to be a foregone conclusion but if any club has European comeback pedigree, it’s the Reds…
VI: Heading into this second leg at the Bernabeu stadium, I have to say that I feel pity for Liverpool to be down 5-2 on aggregate given the performance they produced in the first 45 minutes at Anfield back in February. They were electric at times and ultimately they were let down by individual errors on the night and Real Madrid showing how clinical they are when they sniff weakness in the opponent.
I think the game changed when Alisson Becker made the error for the equalizer. I know Thibault Courtois also made a shocking mistake in the game to allow Mo Salah to pounce but the Liverpool stopper smashing the ball of off Vinicius Jr’s leg and it rebounding into the empty net came at such a critical time in the game and gave Madrid a massive to build upon in the second half.
I appreciate that goalkeepers are instructed to play out from the back and recycle the ball but I feel that someone as experienced as Alisson shouldn’t have made that error, just clear your lines! You have to be a bit pragmatic in your play and manage the game so for me, unless there is a miracle, the tie was lost in this moment.
For all of Liverpool’s efforts to throw the game away, it was a game that personified Real Madrid over the last few years, they soaked up the pressure and didn’t panic at any stage, they just kept going about their game and they always seem to get the result. This has happened a lot during their run to the Champions League final last year, but now it’s happening this year as well!
They seem to get outplayed at times, but they pull off wins from games in which they appeared to have no right to win! PSG, Chelsea, Man City and Liverpool all found that out in the 2021/22 season and once again Jurgen Klopp’s men found themselves in the same position three weeks ago.
Carlo Ancelotti’s men really don’t dominate games but one of the biggest attributes they have is that when they have their chances, they take it. Yes, sometimes they are lucky, sometimes a little bit of deflection there or an error from the opposition here but they have players like Benzema, Modric, Kroos among others who just know how to carve out victories in the Champions League knockout stages.
There’s something going on for this side that is so special and that sometimes can’t really be explained. They’re just: Real Madrid and they’re special. I know a lot of people will say Liverpool are the masters of the European comeback like in Istanbul in 2005 or Barcelona in 2019 but it isn’t going to happen this time.
This Real Madrid team is beatable but this Liverpool team is far to inconsistent this season and they seem to have a huge psychological barrier when playing Real as they haven’t won of their last 7 games against the European champions and they won’t break that losing streak on Wednesday because a winning mentality is in the DNA of these Madrid players.
