Liverpool’s force of emotion and Manchester City’s finesse of the intricate can conjure a Champions League epic

City are an undeniably better team than Liverpool and maybe the best in Europe, but it is the fundamental nature of knockout football to regularly defy the odds – as Liverpool will know

Will Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola serve up a thriller? (Getty Images)

There is a similar surging confidence about both Liverpool and Manchester City going into Wednesday’s grand Champions League occasion, but there is likely to be a striking contrast in how that is expressed on that emotion-swept Anfield pitch. Jurgen Klopp has been working on getting his side to build to the kind of frenetic pace that can cause such problems for the Premier League leaders. Pep Guardiola has instead been ensuring that his players are so drilled that they maintain their smooth and smothering control regardless of how relentlessly fast this game gets.

This contrast is effectively the tie distilled. It is the force of emotion against the finesse of the intricate, the hurricane against the highly sophisticated machine. This is what the game will come down to, what will likely be the winning of it.

It is also why it is likely to be so good, and why so many are justifiably predicting two exhilarating nights of attacking football, maybe even a tie for the ages.

As regards who will come out on top, that’s much harder to predict. It’s also a quality only adding to the anticipation.

There is still one fundamental fact that conditions every other aspect of this first leg. City are just an undeniably better team than Liverpool, and maybe the best in Europe, as proven by their position of scarcely believable strength at the top of the Premier League – before we even get to the football that has put them there and into this quarter-finals.

It is the fundamental nature of knockout football to regularly defy such facts, however, and Liverpool know this better than most. Especially in these ties. They twice did it to Chelsea between 2004 and 2007, as well as so many other sides across that period.

That history is one of many elements fortifying the side’s supreme confidence going into this game. There’s also the knowledge that Klopp has a better record against Guardiola than any other manager in the game, and how the reasons for that record resulted in Liverpool giving City far more problems than anyone else this season, as they became the only Premier League side to beat them so far.

Those close to the Liverpool squad say that has all created a feeling deeply reminiscent of that 2004-05 tie against Chelsea. There is a similarly fierce belief they can win, even if there is an acceptance – and indeed a desire – that it will be a high-scoring game so different to the low-scoring high tension of those mid-2000 matches. This will instead be about bravery and adventure, as Klopp argued on the eve of the game.

Liverpool beat Chelsea in the 2004-05 Champions League (AFP)

“Hoping for a clean sheet against Manchester City does not make much sense,” the German said. “It is 100 per cent they will have a shot on target in 95 minutes. You need the balls to use the space.”

Linked to the 2005-like lack of fear is a lot of talk about the cauldron that Anfield will become, and the same undercurrents about history against high spending as there was with Chelsea. That has created a bit of edge between supporters that hadn’t previously existed. Guardiola sought to play it down on the eve of the game, but it also felt like he was trying to dampen down some of Anfield’s power.

“Hopefully everything and everybody, our fans and Liverpool fans, can be correct and polite,” the Catalan appealed. “It’s just a game, it’s sport. We cannot forget that. The rivalry is good, Liverpool fans will put pressure on the players. That is what it is. Like Kevin [De Bruyne] said, it’s a nice place to play football.”

Niceness and politeness have little to do with nights like this, though. They’re about electricity and pulsating tension.

This is one broader reason why elements like the Anfield atmosphere have elevated importance, and why this might be the best time of year in the sport. There is little like that stomach-tightening feeling that goes with the day’s build-up to such European games, the stakes getting ever greater and more portentous as the evenings get brighter and lighter.

Connected to all of this is the ongoing debate over who the order of the legs actually suits. Football’s generally accepted wisdom is that it is better to play the second leg at home, and the stats from the 10 previous all-English ties would back this up. Only three have been won by the team that played at home first. Liverpool actually lost both of their ties against Chelsea when this applied to them.

Whether that is actually relevant or mere coincidence is hard to say, but what is relevant is the genuine belief within Klopp’s squad that the order does indeed suit them. They feel this is one occasion when it would be best to play at home first, since it gives them a better chance of claiming the advantage against maybe the best side on the planet.

The general feeling around them meanwhile is that they will seek to burst out of the traps with the ferocious pace of Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane, and again stun City.

Sadio Mane starred when Liverpool ripped through Porto (Getty)

The latter is where Liverpool might have some problems, because the January experience of it means it is precisely what Guardiola is preparing for.

The word from those close to the City camp is that he is drilling the side to an inch of their lives, and preaching the necessity for “control” no matter what happens. Greatly aiding that will be the presence of David Silva, who was not available for that January 4-3 defeat, and greatly reinforcing it will be Guardiola’s pre-game words. In referencing this with the international media, he really seemed to be reminding his squad in another way.

“What I admire the most from the important teams is in the bad moments they are calm, they remain calm,” Guardiola said. “In the bad moments, the opponents are attacking and it looks like I am taking a cup of coffee, because I know my chance is coming and when it comes we are not going to miss. That is the big difference.”

It might well be the difference in this match, that keeps coming back to the difference in how they express their confidence.

Liverpool will keep wanting to create chaos, City to keep trying to bring the game under control. Whatever state the match is in will likely decide who benefits.

It is a contrast that will set up quite the contest, and maybe one of those nights.