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Liverpool is already aware it cannot welcome Real Madrid to Anfield again should both sides secure qualification for next season's Champions League league phase.
The clubs have been paired together across two successive campaigns following the format overhaul. The Reds triumphed 2-0 on Merseyside in late November and will welcome Madrid once more in the forthcoming weeks, with Trent Alexander-Arnold returning to Anfield.
That encounter will mark the 13th occasion these sides have clashed in this tournament, with all bar one occurring within the previous 16 years. Nevertheless, merely two prior fixtures, both staged in 2014, occurred during the group stages. Their remaining encounters formed part of the knockout rounds, including three showpiece finals (1981, 2021 and 2022).
They will not, however, clash at Anfield again throughout next season's league phase, in accordance with paragraph 16.03 of the UEFA Champions League regulations.
The regulation stipulates that the "UEFA administration may determine alternative conditions for the draw in accordance with the principles set by the Club Competitions Committee and may adapt any of the conditions of the draw to avoid deadlock situations and/or take into account any relevant constraints in light of decisions taken by the UEFA Executive Committee."
As part of the draw procedure, "the UEFA Club Competitions Committee has determined an additional condition that may be applicable to the UEFA Champions League draw for the 2026/27 season, deciding that any individual fixture between the same two teams may not be repeated in the same competition with the same home team for three consecutive seasons.
"This means that if any teams that already played against each other in the league phase of the UEFA Champions League in the 2024/25 season are again drawn against each other, with the same home team, in the league phase of the UEFA Champions League in this 2025/26 season, those teams will not be able to be drawn against each other with the same home team in the 2026/27 season (although, for the sake of clarity, those teams could still be drawn against each other at the venue of the other team)."
Speaking after the draw was made this week, Liverpool boss Arne Slot admitted he is relishing the visit of the La Liga giants.
He said: "I think the first thing to say is that like last season, it is a very challenging draw, but we knew that it would be because in the Champions League, especially with the new format, there is no such thing as an easy draw.
"But what is also clear is that this is a very exciting draw, full of big games both home and away.
"To be able to welcome Real Madrid to Anfield again is something special. Last season's game was of course a memorable one – and I expect the same this time around. That is, I am sure, a fixture that the whole world will be looking at.
"On a personal note, it is always nice to play against a Dutch team in PSV Eindhoven, a team that won the league title two years in a row. The same goes for Galatasaray, who have won three in a row in Turkey, and for Qarabag, the champions of Azerbaijan.
"And to also play against sides of the calibre of Inter Milan, Atletico Madrid, Eintracht Frankfurt and Marseille shows the strength of this competition."
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