Next Wednesday, 22nd of October 2014, Liverpool will measure forces with a super motivated Real Madrid at the emblematic Anfield Road for round three of the 2014-15 edition of the UEFA Champions League, on a match of major importance for the home side that has already been defeated once in the competition and cannot allow any more setbacks.

After another complicated win at the English Premier League against QPR last Sunday, Liverpool will probably face their most demanding test so far this season when they meet Real Madrid next Wednesday and it will certainly be interesting to know if they are up to the task. Brendan Rodgers has not yet managed to tune up his team like he did last season and The Reds have been experiencing some complicated moments both domestically and internationally.

After a narrow and hard earned win over the “modest” Ludogorets at Anfield Road last month, The Reds weren’t good enough to overcome a well organized FC Basel side on the second round of the tournament. The constant variation from the 4-3-3 to the 4-2-3-1 system is probably not helping Liverpool and the lack of inspiration of the team’s strikers is also contributing for Liverpool’s poor goal tally this season. The erratic Italian forward, Mario Balotelli, is not enjoying the best of times at Anfield Road and his horrendous miss against QPR last Sunday has certainly not contributed to increase his motivation levels.

As for Real Madrid, the Blancos are currently experiencing a fantastic moment at all levels and they are on an outstanding streak of results, with seven consecutive wins. The inspiration of the flamboyant Portuguese player, Cristiano Ronaldo, is currently catapulting Real Madrid to the higher stages of the game after a somewhat unconvincing season start, where they collected two defeats for the first three matches of the new campaign.

Despite their excellent moment, Los Blancos experienced some unexpected difficulties on the last round of the tournament when they visited Sofia to play with Ludogorets. The Bulgarian champions posed a fierce opposition to the current European champions and have only sucumbed during the second-half, when Benzema sentenced the match.

Cristiano Ronaldo and his peers are firm favourites to win the next Wednesday’s clash although the match might also pose a good opportunity for Liverpool’s players to find that extra inspiration they have been missing recently and thus cause a major upset to Real Madrid.

Liverpool

Stats: W-3 L-1 D-1

Recent Form - WWLDW

Real Madrid

Stats: W-5 L-0 D-0

Recent Form - WWWWW

Possible Line-ups

Liverpool (4-3-3) – Mignolet - Moreno - Skrtel - Lovren - Manquillo - Gerrard - Coutinho - Henderson - Balotelli - Sterling - Lallana

Real Madrid (4-4-2) - Casillas - Carvajal - Pepe - Nacho - Marcelo - Khedira - Kroos - James Rodríguez - Ronaldo - Isco - Chicharito Hernández

Prediction

Liverpool 1 Real Madrid 2