Goals and glory await in Kiev
The biggest club game of the year takes place on Saturday night at the NSC Olimpiyskiy Stadium in Kiev, and it promises to be a classic. Not only does the 2018 UEFA Champions League final feature the most decorated European club of them all – a team chasing a 13th title as well as an unprecedented third successive Champions League crown – but also the most successful English club in continental competition.
Real Madrid and Liverpool may not be the top dogs in their native land this season – they finished third and fourth, respectively, in La Liga and the Premier League – but in Europe they have both excelled, scoring goals for fun on their journey to the Ukrainian capital.
The two top-scoring teams in the competition have registered 70 goals between them, Liverpool accounting for 40 of those, 29 of them shared among their fearsome attacking trident of Mohamed Salah (10), Robert Firmino (10) and Sadio Mané (9), while exactly half of Madrid’s tally of 30 have been struck by the greatest European goalscorer of them all, Cristiano Ronaldo.
Madrid have gone 27 Champions League games without drawing a blank – a goalless draw at Manchester City in the 2015/16 semi-final – and although Liverpool were held 0-0 at home by Porto in the round of 16, that hardly counted as it followed a 5-0 rout of the Portuguese champions-to-be in the first leg at the Estádio do Dragão.
Liverpool were actually unbeaten in the competition until their 4-2 semi-final second leg reverse in Rome, and while Madrid had earlier lost 3-1 to both Tottenham (at Wembley) and Juventus (at the Bernabéu), those results were equally inconsequential.
Given the way the two teams have performed thus far, it would be a major surprise – not to mention a bitter disappointment – if attacks did not dominate defences in Kiev. Both teams have looked majestic going forward, threatening repeatedly from a variety of avenues, but horribly vulnerable at the back. Neither side possesses a reliable goalkeeper, and both back fours lack solidity as well as extra security in midfield.
Having finished runners-up in their group to Spurs, the holders have been dealt a rough hand in the knockout phase, having to eliminate three clubs who, unlike Madrid, have won their domestic leagues in 2017/18 – Paris Saint-Germain, Juventus and Bayern. Most impressively, Zinedine Zidane’s side won in Paris, Turin and Munich, but Liverpool can also claim to be happy travellers, having been triumphant both in Porto and at the home of the Premier League champions, Manchester City. And even in Rome they were ultimately jubilant.
Ominously for Liverpool, Madrid’s record in Champions League finals is a perfect six wins out of six. On the other hand, the last team to defeat them in a European Cup decider were… yes, Liverpool, 1-0 winners at the Parc des Princes in the 1981 final thanks to a late goal from Alan Kennedy.
So, which way will this one go? There’s not a great deal to choose between the teams, the only factor that clearly favours one over the other being Madrid’s European experience – especially when it comes to competing in Champions League finals. While they boast a posse of players who have participated in one or more of them, not a single member of Liverpool’s playing squad has previous experience of the fixture.
The Liverpool manager, Jürgen Klopp, does, but only a negative one as his Borussia Dortmund side were beaten 2-1 by Bayern Munich at Wembley in 2013. He also led Liverpool to defeat – by a Spanish club – when they lost the 2016 Europa League final 3-1 to Sevilla. In contrast, Zidane’s embryonic career as a head coach has already brought him two Champions League final successes in two attempts.
And now a historic hat-trick beckons.
Prediction: Unless Real Madrid and Liverpool both suffer an uncharacteristic bout of stage fright (à la Red Star Belgrade-Marseille in 1991), expect lots of fluent attacking play and plenty of inattentive defending, which means there will be goals. A big concern for Liverpool is their lack of stamina (highlighted in both games v Roma) and for this reason, allied to the holders’ big-match nous and know how, I have Madrid down to edge it late on – maybe in extra time and very possibly with yet another all-important Champions League final strike from Ronaldo. 3-2
Did you know? Ronaldo is the only Madrid player to have appeared from first whistle to last in all 12 of Madrid’s Champions League group stage and knockout phase matches this season. The one Liverpool player to have done likewise? Goalkeeper Loris Karius.
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