Programme notesJordan Henderson: These are the occasions Anfield is made for
Jordan Henderson knows the influence the Anfield atmosphere can have on Liverpool's clash with Real Madrid tonight.
The Reds host the 14-time European champions in the first leg of their last-16 tie in the Champions League this evening and Henderson is relishing the prospect of meeting Carlo Ancelotti’s team in L4.
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“It doesn’t seem too long ago that the fact Liverpool and Real Madrid had met so seldomly outside of European Cup finals was a bit of a curiosity,” the captain writes, in his notes for the official matchday programme.
“Now we’ve got a tie which means we will have come up against them six times in five years – eight if you go back to 2014 – and I have to be honest, it is the kind of rivalry that I could never get too much of.
“Results have gone in their favour more than ours and, of course, this is something we want and need to change if we are to go further in this season’s Champions League. But no matter how big the challenge is – and it’s never short of being very big when you come up against Real Madrid – these are the games that you live for as a player and as a supporter.
“If you are involved with Liverpool in any capacity you want to test yourself against the best because your main aim has to be to become the best.
“Real’s record in the Champions League speaks for itself in this respect. They have more than earned their status as European royalty and as a club which is a force to be reckoned with in the Champions League, no matter what the circumstances.
“I would like to think the same is true of ourselves, but that would be for others to say. No matter what anyone else thinks, though, we know that this is a match-up to relish because it is a meeting of giants.
“These are the kind of occasions that Anfield is made for. It was exactly the same last week with the Merseyside derby when the atmosphere lifted every single Liverpool player.
“I didn’t need anyone to tell me it would be like this because I have long since become used to it in the best way possible. Knowing what to expect doesn’t make the impact any less – if anything it makes it greater because you know what is in store and it creates an excitement and an expectation that something special is about to happen.
“It will be exactly the same tonight and as players we have to feed from the energy of the crowd and use it to our advantage.”
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