Reds can be Real hottest property in Europe
Liverpool to go all out as they eye prestigious prize Win and Real hits milestone among elite
TO JUERGEN Klopp, tomorrow’s much-anticipated 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 tomorrow 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 deal with pressure.
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.
Porto, Manchester City and AS Roma were all blown away in the knockout stages with stunning first-leg performances that delivered 13 goals, most from their frontline trio of Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah, the Egyptian maestro whose 44 goals have spearheaded their season.
Liverpool tend to score in bursts, often in the first half, and if they seize the initiative 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 33-yearold.
“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.
So far this season Liverpool have never failed to impose themselves in Europe and their early defensive frailties which saw them squander a three-goal lead against Sevilla in the group stage appear to have been rectified by a new goalkeeper, Loris Karius, and the calming presence of the world’s most expensive defender, Virgil van Dijk.
Whether they will be sufficient to withstand the force of Europe’s most successful but ageing team is one of tomorrow’s most intriguing subplots, as is Klopp’s ability to finally emerge a winner after five successive defeats in finals.
In reaching this far, Liverpool have overcome a series 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. — REAL Madrid can become the first side in 42 years to win three consecutive European Cups when the Spanish giants take on Liverpool in tomorrow’s Champions League final.
Moreover, victory in Kiev would secure Madrid’s fourth European crown in five seasons.
Here, we look at other great sides that dominated Europe to see how Zinedine Zidane’s men compare:
REAL MADRID (1955-1960)
Madrid call themselves the “Kings of Europe” and the feeling this competition is their own was born out of winning the first five European Cups.
Spearheaded by legendary Argentine striker Alfredo di Stefano, Madrid came from 2-0 down to beat Stade de Reims 4-3 in the first final.
Italian opposition in AC Milan and Fiorentina were then dispatched in the next two finals before Reims again were conquered in 1959.
The peak of Real’s reign came in the 1960 final when Eintracht Frankfurt were thrashed 7-3.
LIVERPOOL (1976-1984)
Under Bob Paisley, Liverpool won the European Cup three times in five seasons culminating in victory over Madrid after beating Borussia Monchengladbach and Club Brugge in 1977 and 1978.
BARCELONA (2008-2015)
In contrast to their eternal rivals, Barcelona’s success in Europe’s premier club competition was limited to one victory until the turn of the century.
A second title inspired by Ronaldinho and Samuel Eto’o came in 2006 against 10-man Arsenal, but it was Pep Guardiola’s four-year spell in charge between 2008-2012 that is remembered as one of the greatest sides ever.
Barca beat Manchester United 2-0 to complete a treble in Guardiola’s first season.
United were the victims once more for arguably the best display of Guardiola’s reign in a 3-1 win to lift the trophy again two years later. Barca did the treble again in 2015 for a fifth European crown. —
They will want to do it again. It would be big 100%. If we did it, it would be big, too