Liverpool and Real Madrid meet in the Champions League

MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Champions League royalty will square off on Tuesday when Liverpool host reigning monarchs Real Madrid at Anfield.

The two giants of European football, owners of European Cups between them, find themselves in a repeat of last year’s final, in the most remarkable match of the round of 16.

Madrid have been dedicated to increasing their record collection of tournament titles to 14. Their triumph in the Paris final capped a series of stunning comebacks in the qualifying rounds.

“I’m still scratching my head,” said Glenn Hoddle, the former England manager and BT Sport analyst. “I covered every one of those games and I still can’t figure out how they could win. They were done.”

Madrid came out of the hole to knock out Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea and Manchester City in every game of the knockout stage before beating Liverpool 1-0 in the final.

“They were like a boxer, the ones that go against the ropes and you think the referee is about to stop the fight, Hoddle said. I don’t know what happened, but they got up . They have that quality.”

Liverpool will look to make up for the loss at the Stade de France last May and go into the first leg with an attack that has been fueled by back-to-back wins over Everton and Newcastle in the English Premier League.

Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp said on Monday he only saw the final again last weekend. “Now I know why. But I had to do it and it was torture,” he said.

His side have had an uneven season after competing for an unprecedented quadruple of trophies last year. So much so that, until last week, winning the Champions League seemed to be the best option to access the next edition of the tournament.

But the Premier’s two recent victories have boosted morale, in addition to leaving them six points out of the top four in the table.

Madrid, meanwhile, have just won the Club World Cup earlier this month. He fell eight points behind leaders Barcelona in the Spanish League.

Speaking about last year’s final, Klopp warned that ‘it’s the same clubs, but different teams and different times’.

He also hailed Madrid’s indomitable spirit.

“They never get scared, they never get nervous,” the German coach said. “If you win the tournament that many times, you can probably think it’s yours and maybe they’re right.”