Carlo Ancelotti insists his Real Madrid side will go on the attack against Liverpool

Carlo Ancelotti has promised to fight fire with fire and warned Liverpool that Real Madrid aspires to reach the Champions League quarter-finals with more goals.

Few outside Anfield give Liverpool any chance of reversing the remarkable 5-2 first leg defeat they suffered three weeks ago on Merseyside. Madrid have dominated Liverpool in recent years and they are expected to reach the quarter-finals.

However, none of this will stop Jurgen Klopp’s men from dreaming. This Madrid team is not immune to heavy losses at the Bernabéu (Ajax beat them 4-1 in the quarter-finals here in 2019) and Liverpool, unpredictable as they are, certainly have the potential to do damage.

Ancelotti, who hopes that Karim Benzema will be ready to lead his line after receiving treatment for an ankle problem, knows that Liverpool will take to the streets tomorrow night, as they did last month, but the Real Madrid manager wants watch your team throw punches of their own

“The message is quite simple: don’t assume and play the best we can to try to present a game like we did in the first leg,” Ancelotti said. ‘My idea is not to make assumptions. We will try from minute one to play with maximum intensity and try to win the game.

Real Madrid dominated the first leg, but Ancelotti does not want his team to sit out in the second leg

“We have an advantage but we will think about the game being open: we want to attack and play our best attacking football. There is no assumption, that is quite clear, and the players understand that I think it will be an open game.

“Liverpool will come here trying to change the dynamic. We have to do both, attack and defend, correctly. We won’t just defend, we are thinking about attack. On a psychological level the game is more complex for us than Liverpool.

Liverpool come here to give everything and do their best from minute one, no matter what. We saw it from the first leg. We will try to do everything we can from the beginning, but we have more questions than the opponent.”

Madrid found themselves in a similar situation last season against Chelsea, having won 3-1 at Stamford Bridge, but came close to throwing it all away. Chelsea led 3-0 after 80 minutes, but Ancelotti’s men came through with a spectacular comeback.

Asked about his memories of watching his team squander that huge lead and then win it back in stoppage time, he said: “The game against Chelsea last year was difficult. My role is not to show that I feel a lot of pressure but there are times when you suffer a lot. [That match] it will help us play a different game this time.’

There are reasons for Ancelotti to expect his team to score goals and that is due to the excellent form of Vinicius Junior. The Brazilian will lead Real’s charge, but one man who won’t be anywhere near the action is Eden Hazard: he has a strained relationship with the Italian.

“The relationship is not cold,” argued Ancelotti. It is difficult to evaluate things. I don’t talk to him much because talking is about where you are, that you feel better with some people than others.

Vinicius Jr looks set to play a key role after scoring twice in the first leg at Anfield

‘It’s the same with your children, you feel safer talking to one than the other. The important thing is that if he doesn’t talk a lot and doesn’t play a lot, he’s respecting me and I respect him. Hazard does not play because there is a lot of competition and in this position.

We have a player who is contributing a lot and that is Vinicius. He is on his way to making history at this club as Benzema, Modric, Casemiro have done in recent years.

Real Madrid defender Antonio Rudiger echoed his coach’s sentiments, saying the team had learned from a poor start in the first leg.

Rudiger said: ‘We can’t sleep for the first 15 minutes like we did at Anfield. And we can’t just defend the three-goal advantage, we have to please our fans.”