'It is tough but exciting,' Jurgen Klopp reacts to Liverpool's Champions League draw vs. Real Madrid

Liverpool FC boss Jurgen Klopp termed his side's Champions League draw with Real Madrid as "tough" but an "exciting" fixture on Friday.

The 2020-21 Champions League quarters and semis draw took place on Friday, where Liverpool were drawn against Zinedine Zidane's Real Madrid for the last-eight game. The other quarter-final ties were Manchester City vs. Borussia Dortmund, FC Porto vs. Chelsea, and Bayern Munich vs. Paris Saint-Germain.

While the Bayern-PSG game will be the repeat of last season's final, Liverpool and Real Madrid's meeting will be the repeat of 2018 final, where Los Blancos had defeated Klopp's side 3-1 in Kyiv, Ukraine.

"It's exciting, exciting. It's obviously a tough draw but I am fine with it because if you look at all the other teams you think, 'Oh my god' because they are all strong and all have quality, that's clear. I am really looking forward to the games. It's only just over two years ago that we faced them and it was a tough night for us, so to get the chance to play them again is cool.

I know it's a different round and whatever and we don't know where we will play and stuff like this, but that's all OK. If it will be Budapest, that's fine. We are fine with that. The home game maybe hopefully at Anfield, that would be great as well. So, no, nothing bad to say – nothing bad to say actually, it's just cool," Klopp was quoted by Liverpool's official website, as saying on Friday.

While 2018 final is the only time Klopp has taken over Real Madrid as Liverpool's manager, he faced off against these opponents as many as six times in the Champions League while he was the manager of Borussia Dortmund.

"With Dortmund, it was a little bit like that when the Champions League draw [was made] for the group stage or whatever – we had them in the group stage, we had them in the knockout stages," he said. "Them or Arsenal, one of them we always had.

With Liverpool now we only faced them once, that's OK. But, yes, it's always tough. I think it's the first time I faced them when Cristiano [Ronaldo] is not there; probably maybe the first time since [Gareth] Bale is not there. But obviously [Sergio] Ramos is still there, [Raphael] Varane still there, [Toni] Kroos still there, [Luka] Modric still there, Casemiro still there, [Dani] Carvajal still there, [Karim] Benzema still there. And a few young prospects, proper players on top of that. Again, I'm really looking forward to it," added Klopp in the same interview.

Among the clubs to have qualified for the last-eight of the Champions League this season, only PSG and City have not won the elite European tournament yet. While City have never reached the final, the French club played their maiden UCL final last year but ended up losing to Bayern Munich 1-0 in Lisbon.

The quarter-final first legs will be played on April 6, 7 with the return fixtures on April 13,14. The semi-finals' first legs will be held on April 27,28 with the second legs to take place on May 4,5. The 2020-21 Champions League final is scheduled to be played on May 29 in Istanbul.