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Big European game under the Anfield lights, against a genuine heavyweight. This lot have the Indian sign over everybody in this competition, winning it 8 times since it became the Champions League in 1992. That’s one more than any other club has managed in the competition’s entire history. Still, we owe them big time because they have had the better of things since the start of the last decade. That’s through a combination of them being very good, plus us either not being good enough (2014/15 group stages), or not doing ourselves justice (2020/21 knockouts), or being ridiculously unfortunate (the two recent final meetings). What is it we need to swing the tie in our favour? Firepower. Urgency. Class. Know-how. Organisation. Finesse. Force of nature. Gumption. Accuracy. Luck. Audacity. Control. Tactical nous. Incision. Creativity. Obduracy. Speed. I don’t ask for much. Not going to harp on about the 2 finals, both of which were a real kick in the teeth. Let’s go back to 10th March 2009 and this same stage of the competition. We had brought home a 1-0 advantage after Yossi’s late header at the Bernabeu, after a typical European away performance under Rafa. That Real Madrid team still contained a lot of obvious quality but they were being blown away by Guardiola’s brilliant Barcelona team and had already replaced coach Bernd Schuster with the hapless Juande Ramos, who’d been sacked by Spurs a few months earlier. The second leg though? We utterly destroyed them. Nando’s brilliant turn and shot in the first couple of minutes were thwarted only by an alert Casillas, who also did brilliantly to tip Masch’s goalbound volley over the bar moments later. We were rampant and took the lead when Dirk fended off Real’s Portuguese loon Pepe and squared for Nando to bury the ball past Casillas. No surprise that the former Atletico boy milked the celebrations in front of Real’s travelling support. Pepe was claiming a foul but he was simply not strong enough for the directness of our forwards. Stevie got in on the act when he dispatched a penalty following a handball by Heinze. Not sure if it actually was a handball or off his shoulder, but these were the days before VAR and the way Heinze’s arm moved, it looked like it was off his arm. We were now 3-0 up in the tie, and it was basically done by half time. We weren’t, though. We came steaming out of the traps again in the second half. Babel took on and burst past Ramos down our left and pulled the ball back to the onrushing Stevie to cushion a brilliant first-time finish past Casillas. We then brought on Wee Jay and The Doss, and both made an impact. Wee Jay put himself about and almost bagged a goal. The Doss went one better, finishing at the far post after a quick counter ended up with Masch in the inside right channel crossing low across the box. It was a fortunate finish, but it made it 4-0 on the night and an amazing 5-0 on aggregate. It was to be a week to remember for the Italian. No1 box office hit at the time? It was Race to Witch Mountain, which starred Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. He was still a few years away from definitively moving on from WWE, and was still flitting between movie roles and laying the smacketh down in the ring. I’ve not seen this film but he plays a cabbie driving around a couple of alien teenagers or something. The film was actually the last of a franchise dating back to the mid-70s, and looks like something aimed at a pre-puberty crowd. For years now, Real Madrid have been one of those sides that are capable of brilliance but more often than not, just have enough individual quality to get the job done. They also have an abundance of high-level experience both on the pitch and in the dugout. Modric just never seems to age. Benzema has been excellent for them since Ronaldo left. Vinicius and especially Valverde look on the cusp of world class. Camavinga and Tchouameni bring youth, depth and energy to their midfeld. Of course it’s important to get a positive result from this game, but I think it’s more important that we look like we are heading in the right direction. We’ve had a lot of false dawns this season and some really wretched displays at times, but this is a game where everybody needs to be on it from the off. We still possess all the tools to hurt them, we just need to show it. Let’s make their coach show off his People’s Eyebrow as he struggles to work out what the hell just happened to his lot.