In terms of the Premier League, it's arguably the glamour fixture of the weekend. But both Liverpool and Newcastle United would be forgiven for letting their gaze wander temporarily from St James' Park to what's next on the horizon.
For Newcastle, coming up is a first appearance at the new Wembley and a chance to end a 54-year wait for silverware when they face Manchester United in the Carabao Cup final next Sunday.
Liverpool, meanwhile, will welcome Real Madrid on Tuesday in the first leg of their Champions League round of 16 tie aiming to atone for recent failings in the competition against the European Super League enthusiasts.
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The Reds, of course, are dab hands at juggling responsibilities in multiple competitions, even if the target in the Premier League this season is simply closing the gap to the fourth-placed Magpies. Jurgen Klopp's side, down in ninth, are nine points adrift of this evening's opponents with a game in hand.
Liverpool inflicted Newcastle's only league defeat this term when downing them 2-1 at Anfield back in August, a game in which Fabio Carvalho scored a dramatic injury-time winner. And that the youngster, who missed out entirely against Everton on Monday, could again not make the bench for the rematch on Tyneside underlines the options finally available to Klopp in attack after a fallow start to the calendar year.
Darwin Nunez, Cody Gakpo and Mohamed Salah demonstrated signs of a growing understanding earlier this week, the former creating a goal for the latter while Gakpo ended a seven-game wait for his first Liverpool strike since arriving from PSV Eindhoven in January.
But just as encouraging was the sight of long-term injury absentees Diogo Jota and Roberto Firmino making their comebacks from the bench in the second half. And with Harvey Elliott having shown himself capable on both flanks in attack, there is scope for Klopp to rotate ahead of the Real showdown. To what extent, though - particularly given the importance of tonight's match - is the conundrum.
"Now we have games every three days, but we've worked long enough again on endurance so we should be read," he says. "Hopefully we can make changes from Saturday on with people coming back and staying fit."
There are other positives. Klopp has declared Virgil van Dijk ready to start after six weeks on the sidelines, while both Fabinho and Jordan Henderson showed a clear return to form in midfield against Everton after neither had started the previous four games.
And the Reds boss believes only now are Liverpool and their Premier League rivals emerging from the lingering effects of having a World Cup played in the middle of a regular season.
"There were no obvious signs, it is not that we saw numbers and thought 'oh my God, that looks completely different', but we all know the performance you put on the pitch is related to different things," says Klopp. "It's not just physical, it's your mental health as well. That makes a massive difference.
"It was always clear a (mid-season) World Cup will be massively influential, but some deal better with it and some deal less good with it. Some trained more, some played less, there was no general thing. The only thing was that for all of them, especially for the guys who were long there, it was really, really long since the start of the season and for us the end of last season was the latest possible then it was 'go again'."
Klopp adds: "This is a long, long year and for some players so far with only a two-and-a-half week break since July 2021. That's really, really long. Virgil played all these games and now he was out for a while, Ibou (Konate) didn't play the same amount of games but played as well at the World Cup, was not always playing but was always in training so the body takes it.
"We can't be prepared for things we never experienced before. So I just hope it will never happen again - playing a World Cup in the middle of a season.
"But it is not to blame for our situation - we are talking more about the general situation of football. And I have said it before thousands of times that we have to make sure that these things will not happen again. It is not our problem at the moment but we cannot bring in more games. We did it this time again and, yes, football players are massively influenced by the intensity of the schedule. That is clear."
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