Talking points

• Salah or Ronaldo? Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp diplomatically refused to answer who is better, but Real coach Zinedine Zidane had no problem in picking Cristiano Ronaldo. Mohamed Salah has had the best individual season of any player in Europe, scoring 44 goals so far and winning the Premier League Golden Boot. Ronaldo is the Champions League’s leading scorer with 15 goals in this campaign but, at 33, is seven years Salah’s senior and is not the force he once was.

• Goals guaranteed: Liverpool are the top scorers this season with 40 (not including six in a qualifier against Hoffenheim) which is 10 more than Real have managed despite Ronaldo leading the individual charts with

15. However, Liverpool have the next three top scorers in Salah and Roberto Firmino (10 apiece) and Sadio Mane (nine). They also have the top two players for assists in James Milner (nine) and Firmino (eight).

• A case for the defence then? Liverpool have kept six clean sheets so far with half of them coming in the knockout stage when the world’s most expensive defender Virgil van Dijk was involved following his £75 million January move. Real have managed only three clean sheets and two of those came against minnows Apoel in the group stage. However, the defending champions have wily campaigner Sergio Ramos, the no-nonsense linchpin of Real’s defence for the last decade.