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It is not the first time that Liverpool are heading into a Champions League away game against Real Madrid and at the same time juggling a challenge to secure qualification for the competition.
But the way Jurgen Klopp deals with the situation next month will be significantly different than the way predecessor Brendan Rodgers approached matters in November 2014.
It is true that direct comparisons are quite unfair. However, there is more than one hint of similarity between the two scenarios.
More than six years ago, Rodgers was dealing with another injury crisis, this time in attack, that hampered hopes of keeping up with the top four.
The trip to the Bernabéu came a fortnight after Liverpool were humiliated 3-0 at Anfield, their biggest European loss at home, in their first group stage clash.
And with a home game against Premier League Chelsea a few days later, Rodgers made the drastic decision to bench several key players, including captain Steven Gerrard, vice captain Jordan Henderson and teenage winger Raheem Sterling.
While there was some honor in a narrow 1-0 loss, the selection of the lower-strength team was akin to surrendering to the champions of the competition – a glaring stain on Liverpool’s glittering European reputation.
The gamble backfired horribly for Rodgers, as his team failed to advance out of the group and, in any event, lost 2-1 to Chelsea three days later. Liverpool finished sixth.
In fact, a straight line can be drawn from that night until Klopp replaces Rodgers as boss less than 12 months later, along with Gerrard and Sterling’s decisions to seek new pasture the following summer.
Klopp now faces a recognizable situation, as Liverpool received another shot against Real Madrid in the Champions League quarter-finals next month.
The first leg on the road comes between games at Arsenal and at home to Aston Villa, key encounters with the Reds who still harbor hopes of finishing in the top four in the Premier League.
The Liverpool boss will surely rotate his resources, having at his disposal a much stronger squad than Rodgers had.
But Klopp is unlikely to make the same number of wholesale changes to any of those accessories.
In any case, it will be the Real game in which the Reds are strongest. And for good reason.
While all three games represent a path back to the Champions League, the semi-final draw, in which the winners of Liverpool’s tie take on Porto or Chelsea, indicates that lifting the trophy for the seventh time may be easier than making a bridge. the gap between the top four.
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However, it is not going to be anything but tremendously difficult either, Liverpool are further hampered in Europe being again without the backing of their fans, Anfield denied what would surely have been another famous night.
Klopp knows from experience the transformative impact that a loss to Real Madrid can have at the Reds.
But while Rodgers’ setback helped propel his tenure on the road to terminal decline, defeat in the 2018 Champions League final in Kiev provided Klopp’s team with the hunger and experience to improve the following year. later becoming world and English champions.
If not quite making them, it proved the last step the Reds had to take to reclaim the silverware.
This time, Klopp will hope that Liverpool’s last meeting with Real Madrid will be profitable in both the short and long term.
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