The Champions League draw took place in Nyon this morning at UEFA headquarters, with Real Madrid being handed one of the supposedly more difficult draws.
Los Blancos topped their group against RB Leipzig, Shakhtar Donetsk and Celtic, winning four, drawing one and losing to the Germans once.
Liverpool could not make it past Napoli on head-to-head and as such finished second in their group with Rangers and Ajax.
The two will face each other again in the Round of 16. It will be the ninth meeting between the two, with Real Madrid having the better record, winning five, drawing one and losing three times to Jurgen Klopp’s side.
The recent history lies in favour of Los Blancos though as they have got the better over Klopp in the last two Champions League finals they have played, winning the first 3-1 in 2018 and the second 1-0 this year in Paris.
Since the summer, Liverpool have struggled to hit the same heights after losing Sadio Mane and bringing in Darwin Nunez.
Real Madrid arguably look more rounded, even though they have been without Karim Benzema for much of the season so far. The development of Rodrygo Goes, Vinicius Junior and Fede Valverde has been impressive and the smooth adaptation of Aurelien Tchouameni to life in Madrid equally so.
At this point, Los Blancos are probably favourites, although with three months before the matches kick off, plenty can happen in between. The first leg will be played on either the 14th, 15th, 21st or 22nd of February, with the return taking place on the 7th, 8th, 14th or 15th of March. The full draw can be found here.
