Liverpool step into Bernabéu in search of another Anfield 2019

The jig looked up for Liverpool four years ago, as they went into the second leg of their Big Cup tie with Barcelona three goals adrift. It looked for all the world like pure pipe-dream territory, but then strange things started to happen. Andy Robertson clipped Lionel Messi upside the head; Messi slipped into a funk and spent the rest of the match with a face on; Georginio Wijnaldum, brimful of righteous anger having been left out by Jürgen Klopp, came on and played the game of his life; Trent Alexander-Arnold and Divock Origi did their corner; and Anfield gently rose from its moorings, hovered for 20 minutes or so before starting to spin with increasing velocity and lifting off into hyperspace. All told, a decent night.

On the face of it, that sounds like not the worst precedent to consider as Liverpool ’23 prepare to step into the lions’ cage at the Bernabéu holding neither whip nor chair. Three goals down to Spanish giants again, they’ll grasp at any straw within reach, however wispy. Only problem being, this time they’re playing the second leg away from home, and unlike the notoriously flaky Barça team of the late 2010s, this particular iteration of Real Madrid (1956-2023) are serial winners. If 2019 was a pipe dream, this is a whole oil-refinery distribution system of delusion.

So perhaps they’d be better off securing their succour from another Big Cup comeback, one that happened a mere 24 hours after their banjaxing o’Barca: Tottenham’s famously absurd turnaround from three goals down against Ajax. Not only did Lucas Moura complete that impossible dream in 35 minutes flat, he also did so away from home, all of which is in keeping with the difficulty of the poser Liverpool have been set tonight. It can be done,