3 reasons why Real Madrid will defeat Liverpool on Tuesday

2. An under-experienced Liverpool defense

UEFA’s official site predicts that Liverpool would operate with Trent Alexander-Arnold, Ozan Kabak, Nathaniel Phillips, and Andrew Robertson at the back. And if any part of that starting XI prediction comes true, that would mean that Liverpool would be playing fairly young players at the back. And, with young blood in defense, you never know what you’re going to get in a big match.

What’s considerable here is that they would have the likes of Marco Asensio and Karim Benzema playing across from them. Further ahead in midfield, they’d be up against Luka Modric and Toni Kroos. We have already seen Modric embarrass defenders with his dribbles in the recent matches and even Asensio made a few moves inside the box in the last match that the Eibar defense had no answers to. With such quality coming from the opponents, it is again a question mark on if they would hold up.

This set of defenders have worked wonders for Liverpool. Just a look at the last match, a 3-0 victory over Arsenal goes to prove how reliable they are. And, the Gunners are a top side. Every single defender came back with an above-seven match rating, per Whoscored. The Reds would however miss Virgil van Dijk the most, with his injury he is reported to be back only in May, per thisisanfield.com. Other absentees in defense for the Reds would be Joe Gomez and senior defender Joel Matip.

But, this would be a different match, far away from the comfort of a domestic league and opponents. And, Real Madrid’s forwards as stated earlier, are in inspired form. With the sort of mentality that Los Blancos step with, in Champions League games, it would be safe to say that this Liverpool defense will struggle. Moreover, the ‘Champions League pressure’ is bound to build upon the young guns when playing against the most successful club in the competition. Real, therefore, are clear favorites.