Liverpool-Real Madrid, the last Champions League final will be reissued in the round of 16

What's new Old man?

The lives of Real Madrid and Liverpool will cross paths again in the Champions League round of 16 after starring in the last final, with victory for the whites (1-0) thanks to an assist from Valverde and a goal from Vinicius, the alliance that was

that night in Paris and has continued to produce at the start of the season.

It will be the third confrontation between whites and

in the last six editions, and in all of them the Spanish team emerged victorious, to the torture of Mohamed Salah.

Also in the 2018 final in kyiv (3-1) and in the 2020-21 quarterfinals (3-1 in Valdebebas and 0-0 in Anfield).

Jürgen Klopp's boys were one of the two main rivals to avoid for Carlo Ancelotti's, along with PSG.

They qualified as second in a group in which Napoli, also leader in Serie A, proved unapproachable.

He endorsed a 4-1 in Italy that he then asserted on the last day in England to keep the British behind.

The draw also left another crossover: PSG-Bayern, two other roosters facing the first exchange.

The French fell by surprise to second place in their group on goal difference with Benfica, who beat Maccabi Haifa 1-6 on the final day, scoring three goals in a sprint in the final quarter hour.

Milan-Tottenham, Eintracht-Naples, Dortmund-Chelsea, Inter-Porto, Leipzig-Manchester City and Bruges-Benfica complete this round.

The first legs will be played over two weeks (February 14-15 and 21-22), the same as the returns (March 7-8 and 14-15).

The exact dates will be communicated by UEFA throughout this Monday.

After a strenuous past season in which they were one centimeter away from the two great crowns (Premier for City and Champions for Madrid), Liverpool has not flowed in this first part of the season.

He is eighth in his league and, without reaching the World Cup break, he already sees the title on the Moon: 15 points behind Arsenal and 13 behind City.

Even the fourth place that gives access to the next Champions League will require a kidney blow: it is now seven points away.

In attack he lost Mané, sold to Bayern for 32 million, and bought Darwin Núñez, from Porto for 80, a barter that, for the moment, has not worked for Klopp.

The Uruguayan does not quite fit into the German device.

The attack continues to be a question, above all, of Mohamed Salah, the man in search of revenge against Madrid since 2018. His fatal hookup with Sergio Ramos in the kyiv final sent him to the infirmary and, since then, he has not hidden his desire to collect that episode.

He tried it in 2021, in the midst of the pandemic, but the whites eliminated them in the quarterfinals, and last May he fell again in the final in Paris.

Ancelotti and the 'reds'

“In 2018 [after losing the final], I didn't know if we would come back.

But now I do know that we will return”, Klopp proclaimed last May in the bowels of Saint Denis, in an attempt to raise the morale of the troops after the new blow against Madrid.

A promise that again goes through the whites.

“This is the easiest loss to explain.

They have scored a goal with a shot on goal and we, who shot nine, none, ”added the German apparently in full in the spring in Paris.

It was the night of Courtois, immortal before the avalanche

, especially Salah.

No one has embittered Liverpool more lately than Madrid, who, curiously, lost the last Champions League final against the Anfield team.

It happened in 1981, also in Paris (1-0).

The appointment, for which there are still three months left, will mean Ancelotti's reunion with Liverpool, with whom he has a long history in the top continental competition.

When he belonged to Roma, he was unable to play the 1984 European Cup final against the

due to injury (he lost his team on penalties. In 2005, at the helm of Milan, he fell in one of the most remembered finals (On penalties after leading 3-0 at the break.) Two years later, in another Milan-Liverpool, this time he did win (2-0), and last season in Paris he came out victorious again.

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