Michael Owen predicts Real Madrid thoughts on playing Liverpool and assesses new format advantage

Former Liverpool star Michael Owen believes Anfield will be a tough place for Real Madrid to play when they take on the Reds in November's Champions League clash.

Arne Slot's side return to Europe's elite club competition on Tuesday night, with the Reds taking on AC Milan at San Siro just days after their 1-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest. This season, the Champions League has adopted a new league phase, which will see clubs competing play eight games, four at home and four away, rather than the traditional six group games.

One of Liverpool's Pot 1 opponents they were drawn against was last term's Champions League winners Real Madrid, who won their 15th European crown at Wembley earlier this year. Thankfully for Slot and co, they won't have to travel to the Bernabeu to take on Kylian Mbappe and co, with the contest seeing Real Madrid have to deal with what will likely be a raucous Anfield.

And Owen believes that Carlo Ancelotti's side will not be relishing the thought of facing off against Liverpool at Anfield. "You'd have to say that Madrid are the team to beat," Owen told Genting Casino .

"However, Real Madrid won't relish playing Liverpool, they won't enjoy going to Anfield and playing Liverpool. Real Madrid won't enjoy it if they have to play Manchester City either, because secretly they might have got through on a couple of occasions, but secretly they will know that when they've played City they weren’t necessarily the best team.

"But you have to say that Madrid are the favourites going into it, but I don't think Madrid will be relishing playing City or Liverpool at the moment. So I think it'll be a good tournament."

And Owen also reckons the new Champions League format could hand bigger sides an advantage too. He added: "The change in Champions League format could be interesting, but I would still suspect that the big teams will come out on top and to get into the knockout stages.

There's more games this year and the more games there are in any competition, the more I would expect the better teams to come out on top at the end of it. In knockout competition when it's just a one leg game, it can be home and away it can be quite fraught, not always the best team win, but the longer the format, the more I would favour the better teams.

"So I've believed that Manchester City have been the best team in Europe for the last few years. However, Manchester City have not won as many European Cups in that time as Real Madrid have.

"I would still argue that, you know, in a couple of those times when City have been knocked out by Real Madrid, I'd still argue that Man City were the best team on certain occasions. But we’ve seen the results that Madrid have got in this competition and now having Kylian Mbappe in their team, they're not getting any worse, are they?"

Liverpool.com says: "The match-up between Liverpool and Real Madrid at Anfield is one of the most exciting league phase matches the new Champions League format produced. It'll be interesting to see just how the two sides fare come November, especially if Kylian Mbappe has settled into his new role with the defending Champions League winners."