Can Real Madrid beat Liverpool to the Champions League round of 16?

At the end of the winter of 2023, we will see an amazing matchup in the 1/8 finals of the Champions League between Real Madrid and Liverpool. Last year's tournament finalists will meet at an early stage of the Playoffs, thus, one of the main contenders will be forced to stop his fight for the cup. For sure, these teams would have preferred to avoid each other again, but the draw has developed in this way.

Due to the indistinct form of Liverpool, logically, the favorite is Real Madrid, but in reality, this is not the case. In fact, apart from the victory in the Champions League against Tottenham in 2019, all hopes of the Merseysiders for the title were dashed by the Spanish clubs Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid in 2018, 2020, 2021 and 2022. Liverpool have lost 5 of their last 6 head-to-head meetings against Real Madrid since 2014, but many pundits believe that England will be able to end that paltry streak this season. According to the bookmaker Mostbetuz, Real is the favorite. However, is it really so? Let's consider the chances of the teams and provide our prediction for the team that will advance to the quarterfinals.

Liverpool pass odds

Older fans of the English club may remember the 1981 CEC decisive match between Real Madrid and Liverpool, when it was the Merseysiders who were stronger. This season, the Reds started the Champions League rather uncertainly with a 4-1 defeat to the Italian Napoli and an uncertain victory over Ajax (2-1). However, then Jurgen Klopp's team had two powerful fights against the Rangers, having obtained two confident victories 2:0 and 7:1. Inspired Liverpool already in the 5th round did not leave a stone unturned from Ajax (3:0), and in the final meeting of the group round against Napoli they celebrated a dry victory by scoring two unanswered goals.

Despite this, 5 wins were not enough for Liverpool to get a ticket to the 1/8 Playoffs from the first place. Napoli were ahead of the English in terms of the best additional indicators. It was the defeat against the Neapolitans in the 1st round that sealed the fate of the Reds, who now have to fight Real Madrid.

In the English Premier League, Liverpool performs very uncertainly and currently takes only 6th place in the standings. This is due to the fact that the team's defense is too fragile, and there are also many injuries in the center line. However, despite this, bookmakers estimate Liverpool's chances of reaching the quarter-finals higher, with odds of 1.70.

Odds for the pass Real Madrid

If we compare the campaign of Madrid in the group stage with the performances of the British, then it went according to a slightly different scenario. In the first three matches, Real beat Celtic, RB Leipzig and Shakhtar Donetsk. However, later the Madrid club allowed itself some relaxation and drew 1:1 with the Ukrainian team, equalizing only in the 95th minute thanks to the efforts of Antonio Rüdiger. In the fifth round, "Creamy" lost to "Leipzig" in Germany with a score of 3:2 and the advantage of "Real" was reduced to 1 point. However, in the last match, the Spaniards faced a duel against Celtic, which they confidently won with a score of 5:1.

In recent years, many veterans have left the Real Madrid squad, such as Sergio Ramos, Gareth Bale, Isco, Casemiro, Rafael Varane. However, at the same time, Karim Benzema, Toni Kroos, Luka Modric and Thibault Courtois still continue to get victories for the club, including in the Champions League. If we talk about rising stars, then this season Rodrigo, Vinicius Junior and Fede Valverde are in great shape.

Real Madrid's betting odds are around 2.15, which means that last year's title holders will have to work hard to get past a strong English club.