Ozan Kabak and Nat Phillips look set to start their fourth successive game at centre-back for Liverpool tonight as the Reds take on Real Madrid.
Jurgen Klopp 's side travel to the Spanish capital to face the 13-time Champions League winners at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano in the quarter-final of the prestigious European competition.
Kabak and Phillips haven't conceded a single goal in wins against RB Leipzig, Wolves and Arsenal in the last three games - and have shown promising signs for the Reds.
However, they will face a different animal in Real Madrid and will have to be at their very best when taking on an in-form Karim Benzema.
The French striker, who has scored four goals in three games against Liverpool in the Champions League, has struck 24 times in all competitions for Los Blancos so far this season.
Benzema has also netted nine goals in his last seven games for Zinedine Zidane's side in all competitions, so the Reds will be well aware that keeping him quiet over the two legs could be the key to the semi-finals.
Real Madrid TV presenter and commentator, Nicolás Quarles van Ufford, thinks the experienced 33-year-old striker will be very excited over the possibility of lining up against the inexperienced duo of Kabak and Phillips.
Speaking exclusively to the ECHO, Quarles said: “I think Benzema is licking his lips right now.
"Benzema is in the form of his life and if you look at the weekend’s game against Eibar, what Zidane did was, he had Benzema, Vinicius and Asensio basically crossing through each other’s paths the whole time.
"They basically were without set positions, Asensio was playing through the middle a lot, Benzema was playing out wide a lot, and what that did was cause a lot of chaos in the Eibar defence, they didn’t know what to do and who to mark.
"They might do something similar against Liverpool in the sense that they’ll just try to confuse Phillips and Kabak, who obviously don’t have a lot of experience of playing alongside each other, so I think they’re just going to try and take advantage of that.
"Look out for Benzema making a lot of sneaky runs, peeling off his marker, I think he’ll be very, very excited to face those two, but also people like Vinicius and Ferland Mendy, who are definitely going to overload the right side of Liverpool’s defence.
"Trent will need help, which will obviously commit more players and leave space elsewhere.”
Quarles went on to talk about Madrid's recent form, with Zidane's team second in La Liga, just three points adrift of their city rivals Atletico.
He warned Liverpool that Los Blancos will be confident against any side on the planet right now.
"They’re on their best streak of the season right now, they’re unbeaten in 11, won four in a row, won nine of those 11, so I think they are pretty happy," Quarles said.
"The mood in the training ground is pretty good, I’d say everyone is pretty confident, the most confident they’ve been in a while.
"I don’t think there’s an opponent in the world Real Madrid aren’t confident against.”
The RMTV correspondent added: "I’ll go for 1-0 Real Madrid win here in Madrid and 2-1 Real Madrid win at Anfield.
"I’m quietly confident that Real can hold on and have that little bit more knowhow, the defensive stability and they have the likes of Modric and Kroos, and Valverde and Hazard can come back at any point.
"I think Real Madrid will go through but it’s anyone’s tie, really.
"I don’t think Real Madrid are underestimating Liverpool at all, though.
"In Spain, generally speaking in Spain, Liverpool are held in very high regard.
"People here, you can really respect Liverpool and they’re definitely the best thought of club in England from a Spanish point of view, the history, the culture, they respect them a lot and everyone knows how good they can be when they’re at their best.”
