Another blockbuster Champions League tie pitting Liverpool and Real Madrid against each other takes place at Anfield for the first leg of their last-16 showdown on Tuesday night.
The two familiar foes are renewing hostilities less than a year after Los Blancos defeated the Reds 1-0 in the 2021-22 final thanks to Vinicius Junior's winner, collecting their 14th European crown while preventing Liverpool from clinching their seventh.
Since that fateful night in Paris - which was marred by the ugly scenes outside the Stade de France prior to the match - a troubled Liverpool qualified for the knockout rounds by finishing second in Group A, while the holders beat Celtic, Shakhtar Donetsk and RB Leipzig to first place in Group F.
Here, Sports Mole takes a closer look at Liverpool and Real Madrid's head-to-head record ahead of Tuesday's first leg, which precedes the second leg at the Bernabeu on March 15.
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Tuesday's crunch clash will mark the 10th meeting between Liverpool and Real Madrid in the upper echelons of European football, with the Reds winning each of the first three with three clean sheets in tow.
However, Los Blancos have since strung together a six-game unbeaten streak against the Merseyside giants, winning five and drawing one Champions League contests since the 2014-15 group stage.
Following Alan Kennedy's winner in the 1981 European Cup final, Rafael Benitez masterminded 1-0 and 4-0 wins over his future club in the 2008-09 group stage, with Yossi Benayoun scoring the only goal of the contest in their Bernabeu triumph.
That trio of wins has counted for nought in recent years, though, as in the 2014-15 season, Real Madrid - under the tutelage of Carlo Ancelotti as well back then - won both of their Champions League group games over Liverpool by an aggregate score of 4-0.
Not until the 2017-18 final would Real Madrid and Liverpool lock horns again, but in a game that has gone down in history for Loris Karius's horror show as well as Gareth Bale's tremendous acrobatic goal, Zinedine Zidane led the Spanish giants to a 3-1 success.
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Karius's disastrous evening in Kyiv remains the goalkeeper's most recent game for an English club, but rather appropriately, he could make a sensational return for Newcastle United in next weekend's EFL Cup final against Manchester United, with Nick Pope and Martin Dubravka both unavailable.
Despite managing to add a Premier League and Champions League to their trophy cabinet before next meeting Real Madrid in the 2020-21 quarter-finals, Liverpool lost 3-1 at Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano in the first leg before a goalless draw at Anfield sent Jurgen Klopp's side packing.
Reds fans travelled to Paris for the 2021-22 final hoping to witness their side serve up a cold dish of revenge, but Ancelotti's love affair with the Champions League continued, as Thibaut Courtois made a staggering nine saves while Vinicius tapped home at the back stick to inflict more continental misery on the Reds.
A total of three wins, one draw and five defeats from their nine meetings with Real Madrid is hardly disastrous, but Liverpool's six-game winless run against Los Blancos is their longest-ever streak without a win against a single opponent in the Champions League - one which could increase to seven if Klopp's side cannot harness all the momentum from their recent uptick in results.
Ben Knapton
