Preview: Alonso's record and stats of Liverpool in UCL

Arne Slot’s side host the La Liga club in an 8pm GMT kick-off at Anfield on Tuesday night.

After winning each of their first three meetings with Real, Liverpool have claimed victory in only one of the last nine – the 2-0 success at home in this competition last season.

That result at Anfield a year ago came thanks to second-half goals from Alexis Mac Allister and Cody Gakpo.

This is the 10th time in the last 11 European campaigns that the Reds have faced Spanish opposition and the sixth Champions League season in a row that they have met a team from Madrid.

They have won four, drawn one and lost one in their last six fixtures against Spanish opponents at Anfield.

Liverpool are two goals short of registering 500 in the European Cup/Champions League.

Mohamed Salah is set to play his 200th game at Anfield for the Reds. He currently has 137 goals at home for the club.

Salah needs two more goals to become the first African to score 50 times in the Champions League.

Dominik Szoboszlai and Virgil van Dijk have played every minute of Liverpool’s Champions League campaign so far this season.

Conor Bradley will miss the home clash with PSV Eindhoven later this month if he is booked in this match.

Ibrahima Konate could play the 50th game in UEFA club competition of his career.

The Reds have had seven different scorers in Europe already this season, their most after three games since 1981-82 in the European Cup.

None of Liverpool’s last 29 group/league phase matches in UEFA competition have finished in a draw, since the 1-1 at Midtjylland in December 2020.

Real have three wins from three in the Champions League this term, defeating Marseille 2-1 at home, winning 5-0 at Kairat Almaty and beating Juventus 1-0 at the Santiago Bernabeu.

Kylian Mbappe is the joint-leading scorer in the Champions League so far with five, alongside Bayern Munich’s Harry Kane.

Xabi Alonso will be only the third opposing manager to take different teams to Anfield in European competition in successive seasons. He follows Ronald Koeman (Benfica in 2005-06 and PSV Eindhoven in 2006-07) and Eric Gerets (Galatasaray in 2006-07 and Marseille in 2007-08).

Real are playing in the Champions League for the 29th consecutive season, a record they share with Barcelona, and have reached the semi-finals or better in 12 of the last 15 campaigns.

They have had the most goal attempts in the competition this season with 75. Of those, 36 have been on target.

This is Real’s 63rd meeting with an English club; to date, they have won 26, drawn 16 and lost 20.

Liverpool and Real are the only pair of teams to have faced each other in three finals of this competition – 1981, 2018 and 2022.

This will be their 13th clash overall, all of which have been played in the European Cup.