Goals will flow
> … as Klopp’s pretenders eye up Real’s crown
TO JURGEN KLOPP, Saturday’s muchanticipated Champions League final will rest on whether Real Madrid’s drive to win their third successive title outstrips Liverpool’s desire for their first since 2005.
“They will want to do it again. It would be big 100%. If we did it, it would be big, too. We will try,” said Liverpool’s manager with an understatement at odds with his belief that his team will succeed.
The narrative of young pretenders challenging the established order appeals to Klopp, who made his name taking aim at Bayern Munich with Borussia Dortmund, but Liverpool are hardly ingenues when it comes to winning European titles.
Victory on Saturday would bring their sixth European Cup and reinforce their status as by far England’s most successful team in the competition. Predictably, advice from their legion of past winners has flowed all week.
To Steven Gerrard, hero of the 2005 win over AC Milan, they must simply seize the moment; to Alan Kennedy, who scored the goal which beat Real in the 1981 European Cup final it is about courage; to Kenny Dalglish, a three-times winner in 1978, 1981 and 1984 the secret lies in understanding how to react when the pressure bites.
With pedigree like that, Liverpool are rather more than cocky upstarts out to take a swipe at Real and it will be a surprise if Klopp does not keep faith with the free-flowing brand of football that has made them the competition’s leading scorers with 40 goals.
Liverpool tend to score in bursts, often in the first half, and if they seize the initiative on Saturday Real may struggle to play catch up against a team never so dangerous as when they defend. But the English side are unlikely to have it their own way against the serial winners from Spain.
Another triumph would make Real the fourth team to claim three successive European crowns “and the only ones to do it twice” while Cristiano Ronaldo is hoping to become the first player in the Champions League era to win five titles, four with Real.
Already the tournament’s record scorer, the five-times Ballon d’Or winner netted in every Champions League game this season before twice missing out in the 4-3 semifinal aggregate triumph over Bayern Munich when he struggled to assert himself.
While some viewed that as a blip, Graeme Souness, another of Liverpool’s European Cup winners, saw it as a sign of decline and suggested that Klopp should not construct a gameplan around a fading 33year-old.
“He spends a lot of time on his bum now, complaining he’s been fouled, and plays the width of the box,” Souness wrote in the Sunday Times. “He’s still capable of great things but, like Real, nowhere near where he was even 12 months ago.”
Ronaldo’s double in Real’s quarterfinal win over Juventus suggests Liverpool would do well not to write him off just yet and their promising but inexperienced fullbacks Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold will have to be at their sharpest to deal with his threat and that of Gareth Bale if he starts.
Marcelo, Real’s marauding leftback, could prove equally key in a game where goals appear guaranteed.
In reaching this far, Liverpool have overcome a series of crippling injuries, the mid-season departure of star midfielder Philippe Coutinho and the still unexplained absence of Klopp’s assistant Zeljko Buvac.
To negotiate all that and end up with the biggest prize of all would assure them a place in Anfield’s bulging hall of fame. You can almost feel Klopp urging them on.
GOALKEEPERS UNDER THE MICROSCOPE Loris Karius
“Real Madrid will look at Karius and think he is a weak link when we get to the final, I’m sure of that,” added another Liverpool European Cup winner of the past, Mark Lawrenson.
Karius, 24, has started all 12 of Liverpool’s Champions League matches since the start of the group stages, recording a competition-high six clean sheets.
However, he played second fiddle behind Simon Mignolet in the Premier League until January. After breaking his hand in his first pre-season, he struggled badly in his debut campaign and was dropped after just 10 Premier League appearances.
The Costa Rican was intended to be Madrid’s makeweight in the move that brought David de Gea from Manchester United in 2015. Instead, that deal was not completed in time on transfer deadline day and Navas has gone on to be a two-time Champions League winner.
Deeply religious, Navas has put that twist of fortune down to a higher power. A hero in his homeland, his rise from humble origins to become one of Real’s millionaire galacticos has been made into a film called “Man of Faith” that was released in Spain this week.
Despite Madrid’s success, though, Navas has never been able to shake off speculation every season that he could be replaced.
Only a late intervention by Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane prevented the club signing Spanish international Kepa Arrizabalaga in January, while De Gea and Chelsea’s Thibaut Courtois remain on Real’s radar.
Navas’s case was not helped by high-profile errors to concede goals against Juventus as Madrid sneaked past the Italian champions in the quarterfinals, and in a first leg semifinal win at Bayern Munich.
However, he more than made amends with eight saves to repel a second leg onslaught from Bayern to book Madrid’s place in Kiev.