Football Brief

Winners

Real Madrid: This season hasn't been straightforward for the Los Blancos, they trail Barcelona by 8 points in the league and have already lost 2023 Supercopa de España to their eternal rivals but whenever it comes to Europe's premier club competition their form is almost always of little importance because they bring on their best as was seen at Anfield last week. It's not everyday you get to see Liverpool ship in 5 goals at Anfield, infact that was the first time they conceded five goals at Anfield in champions league history. Real Madrid's performance on Europe's biggest stage once again showed why they have 14 UCL titles and why they're favorites to this year's competition.

Serie A teams: Three Serie A teams made it to the knockout stage and all three won their matches. In a time EPL clubs are spending hundreds of millions to attract star players from all over the continent seeing clubs from other leagues perform well on Europe's biggest stage shows money can't buy it all sometimes.

Losers

Liverpool: Two victories leading up to the Madrid game at Anfield gave the reds a little hope they could spring up a surprise against Los Blancos, they even started brilliantly taking a two goal lead in the first 15 mins only to lose it and receiving a spanking as well. They were the only team in the first leg stage to concede more than two goals and they'll be hoping for a miracle in the return leg albeit unlikely.

EPL: They spent the most in January and indeed this season and in the past several seasons yet no Premier league team could win their first leg tie. Chelsea, Tottenham and Liverpool all lost while City shared the spoils with Leipzig. While it's very much unlikely for Liverpool to turn the tide against Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu other EPL teams have a chance to redeem themselves and their league in the return fixtures in a couple of weeks from now.