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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Sport
Nathan Bliss

Liverpool's Champions League campaign simulated following quarter-final draw

Liverpool will face La Liga giants Real Madrid in the Champions League quarter-finals, ahead of a possible semi-final against either Porto of fellow Premier League side Chelsea.

UEFA have confirmed that the quarter-final first leg between Real Madrid and the Reds will take place on Tuesday April 6, with the return leg set top take place on Wednesday April 14. The semi-final ties will be played on 27/28 April and 4/5 May.

Manchester City have been matched against Borussia Dortmund, whilst Paris Saint-Germain will take on current Champions Bayern Munich.

Now that Liverpool's possible path to the Champions League final has been revealed, we simulated every tie on FIFA 21, to find out just how far the Reds could go in this season's competition.

This is what happened.

Liverpool's lineup against Real Madrid was as follows; Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Phillips, Kabak, Robertson; Thiago, Fabinho, Wijnaldum; Salah, Firmino, Mane.

(EA SPORTS FIFA)

In the first-leg, Liverpool put in an excellent performance away from home, with goals from Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino hoping the Reds secure a 2-2 draw with two away goals heading into the second leg.

(EA SPORTS FIFA)

And the good news continued in the return leg, because an early goal from Firmino in the 14th minute put the Reds in a great position with just 76 minutes of the tie remaining.

However, a 60th minute equaliser from Karim Benzema set the alarm bells ringing for Jurgen Klopp's men, who were now in the strange position of knowing that they were going through to the semi-final on away goals, they just had to stay solid and not concede.

But Benzema broke Liverpool's hearts with an 89th minute winner, with the Frenchman scoring a brilliant header from a corner-kick.

(EA SPORTS FIFA)

And that was the Reds' 2020/21 Champions League campaign over.

(EA SPORTS FIFA)

In terms of the rest of the competition, Madrid beat Chelsea in the semi-final, who breezed past Porto in the quarter-final.

Meanwhile, Man City overcame Borussia Dortmund but lost to Paris Saint-Germain in the semi-final, who had beaten Bayern impressively in the quarter-final.

So, the final was set; Real Madrid vs Paris Saint-Germain.

In the end, it was a horrible game to watch.

After 90 minutes ended without any goals, the match advanced to extra-time, which is where the winning goal was scored.

(EA SPORTS FIFA)

With just five minutes of time remaining before penalties, a breakaway led by Neymar was finished off beautifully by Kylian Mbappe, whose goal secured the Parisian's first ever Champions League trophy.

Captain Marquinhos lifted the trophy in Istanbul.

(EA SPORTS FIFA)

What do you think of our Champions League simulation?

*FIFA 21 is out now on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC. The next generation version of FIFA 21 is also available now on Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S and PlayStation 5.

Fans who jump into FIFA 21 can also benefit from Dual Entitlement, enabling them to upgrade their copy of the game from PlayStation 4 to PlayStation 5, or Xbox One to Xbox Series X/S at no extra cost.

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