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| Jurgen Klopp, Manager of Liverpool (L) and Carlo Ancelotti, Head Coach of Real Madrid. Liverpool and Real Madrid meet in the UEFA Champions League Final at the Stade de France on May 28,2022. |
Real won a record-extending 35th LaLiga title with a month
of the season left and are in their 17th European Cup final.
Liverpool
is unbeaten since March, have lost only three games all season and have already
lifted two domestic cups but they will play Real Madrid in Saturday’s Champions
League final under pressure to avoid ending the campaign as nearly men.
Having
spent the latter part of the season being touted for a unique quadruple, they
face the prospect of potential double disappointment after missing out on the
Premier League title to Manchester City by a solitary point on the last day.
For
Real the situation could not be more different. They began the season with low
expectations but ended up romping to the LaLiga title and became the comeback
kings of Europe after heroic and improbable fightbacks en route to the final.
So
while bookies’ favourites Liverpool have lost fewer games in all competitions
this term than Madrid have in the Champions League alone, the pressure appears
to be more on the Reds to lift the trophy at the Stade de France.
Real
are enjoying a dream season that started with almost no expectations and could
end up with a LaLiga-Champions League double thanks mainly to an amazing season
from Karim Benzema.
His
15 goals in 11 Champions League games, 10 in the knockout stage, have put Real
on the verge of winning Europe’s elite club title for the fifth time in nine
years and the France striker as favourite to claim the Ballon D’Or after
scoring 44 goals, with 15 assists, in 45 games in all competitions.
It
has been a stellar season that took some time to arrive for the 34-year-old
Frenchman, who took has cemented a place as the undisputed leader and most
influential player in a team that needed a talisman after losing Cristiano
Ronaldo four years ago.
He
has only netted once in his four Champions League finals but that was against
Liverpool in 2018 when he opened the scoring in a 3-1 win thanks to a
horrendous error by Loris Karius on a nightmare night for the German
goalkeeper.
Memories
of that match will provide an extra dose of confidence for Benzema and his tam
mates on the back of Real’s hugely impressive run of comebacks in this season’s
competition that have built a feeling of invincibility for Los Blancos.
They
came from behind in all their knockout stage clashes against Paris St Germain,
Chelsea and Manchester City to win with last-minute goals that turned the
Bernabeu into a place where fans and players started believing miracles come
true.
Real
won a record-extending 35th LaLiga title with a month of the season left and
are in their 17th European Cup final – an accomplishment that allowed Ancelotti
to give his players some rest as they go into the final with no major injury
concerns.
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