Steve Nicol has urged Liverpool to produce a strong and united performance when they face Real Madrid at Anfield in tonight\u2019s Champions League showdown.<\/p>\n
The Reds recently ended a dismal run of six defeats in seven games with a 2-0 win over Aston Villa, restoring some belief ahead of the visit of Xabi Alonso\u2019s in-form Madrid, who have won 13 of their 14 matches this season, driven by Kylian Mbapp\u00e9\u2019s red-hot form.<\/p>\n
Speaking on ESPN FC, the Liverpool legend admitted Madrid \u201chave to be favourites\u201d given their current dominance and Liverpool\u2019s struggles, but he challenged his former club to show fight and focus:<\/p>\n
> \u201cI\u2019m looking for a performance \u2014 for the frontline to be direct and exciting, and for the back four to be united. They\u2019ll need to be, especially against Mbapp\u00e9. For me, this is about the performance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pressed for a score prediction, Nicol tipped Real Madrid to win 2-1, insisting the Spanish giants are simply \u201ca better team right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, with Anfield\u2019s famous atmosphere behind them, Liverpool could yet defy the odds and earn a vital result to build confidence before their crucial trip to Manchester City next weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Steve Nicol has urged Liverpool to produce a strong and united performance when they face Real Madrid at Anfield in tonight\u2019s Champions League showdown. The Reds recently ended a dismal run of six defeats in seven games with a 2-0 win over Aston Villa, restoring some belief ahead of the visit of Xabi Alonso\u2019s in-form …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":53604,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/nicol-liverpool-madrid-1200x674.jpg.webp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=53603"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53603\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53605,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53603\/revisions\/53605"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/53604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=53603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=53603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=53603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}