Do not blink or you’ll miss this game of thrones
CASEMIRO
I’m happy that we are in this situation. We are here to give it a go.
“The boys have been brilliant to get us in to the situation we are in now. The home games were like, ‘Wow! What’s that?’ ”
It takes courage to play that way and Madrid are not noticeably light in that department
ALEXANDER-ARNOLD MILNER FIRMINO BENZEMA VAN DIJK HENDERSON LOVREN ROBERTSON WIJNALDUM MANE
either for all that they have scrambled past teams in Juventus and Bayern Munich who still wonder how they are on the beach and not warming up in Kiev’s sunshine. Liverpool went through their paces in the stadium but with their usual passing drills giving way to a surprisingly full-blooded, impressive 10-a-side affair on half of the pitch. In contrast, Real, who may MIDFIELD
THREE KEY AREAS
THE FLANKS yet try to exploit the youthful flanks of Liverpool by employing Bale, saved their legs with a gentler workout later.
The Wales striker stands on the brink of equalling Phil Neal’s record for the British player with the most European Cup wins (four) despite speculation continuing over his future in Spain.
His relationship with Zidane is said to be strained over a lack of playing time despite him having four years of a lucrative five-year deal to run.
It is a fact of life at Madrid, who appear to have a big edge from the bench should the THE BENCH game be locked. The initial blast of energy from Liverpool has to yield something.
“We know about the crazy quality and experience of Real Madrid,” said Klopp. “But we are Liverpool. We are different. We’ve been different the whole campaign and we want to be different again in that final.”
Tonight’s match is not easily framed as a clash of styles, with Klopp’s heavy metal ranged against Real Madrid’s classical ensemble.
Liverpool have certainly not lacked finesse on the way here. Yet it will be a test of whether they can stay true to their manager’s principles.