Real Madrid vs Liverpool in the Champions League is enough in its own right to cause a stir in the media as the most successful English club in Europe takes on the most successful Spanish club in Europe.
A clash of giants that have recent history in the 2018 and 2022 Champions League final, is as big as it gets in global football terms, but tonight's game has an added spice that takes this to new levels.
Trent Alexander-Arnold is mr Liverpool, an academy graduate who is currently vice-captain of the team, and has played a vital role in helping the club collect every single trophy available to them in his short career so far.
However, when you have a superstar like Trent in your team, Real Madrid tend to come knocking, and with the right back on the last year of his contract, the interest from the Spanish giants has grown exponentially.
Fans have hoped that the homegrown star would have signed a new contract by now, but with the club at a stalemate with the player, his exit looks more and more plausible.
Now as the Englishman prepares to meet his potential teammates next season, their manager Carlo Ancelotti finally breaks his silence on the matter, but still doesn't say much.
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“I'm sorry but I cannot think about Alexander-Arnold. He is not my player.
“I have a good memory of Everton and I consider Liverpool with usual respect, fantastic club and supporters. But I'm still an Evertonian!
“It will be very intense. We are two historic clubs. We each have our own characteristics and we’ll see who can impose them. Liverpool are always very competitive. It was with Klopp, it is with the new coach.”
“Liverpool has done really well until now, better than us in domestic competition. But now we are back and hope to play a good game against tough opposition. At the end of the season, we hope to be there as usual.”
A major factor behind the transfer speculation is the fact that Madrid's star player Jude Bellingham is also best friends with the Liverpudlian.
They are already teammates with the national team, but Bellingham was asked at the press conference if he wanted to be teammates at club level as well.
“I’ll be playing alongside him next season for England anyway. That will be a guarantee.
“But he’s a Liverpool player and it would be disrespectful to come to his home today with a big game [on Wednesday] and talk about something that could be misconstrued so it’s important to take that pressure off him.
"I want him to do really well normally. Just not [on Wednesday].”
It would be very interesting to see how both the home and away fans react to the player, but it is unlikely that Trent Willa actually feature in tonight's game as he is still recovering from a hamstring injury that he picked up before the international break.
