Liverpool – Real Madrid: a final for history

• The Spanish team and the English team dispute the title of the Champions League for the third time, in the most repeated match of the finals.
• Both Ancelotti and Klopp, who recovers Thiago, will have their gala ‘elevens’ at the big event in Paris.

Paris hosts tonight (9:00 p.m.) the match that decides the champion of the 2021-22 Champions League and that faces two great footballers, Liverpool, and Real Madrid. A final that takes place for the third time in history, more than any other in this tournament, and in which there is no clear favorite as usually happens in matches of this level. Of the two precedents, each team took a victory.

The past is with the white team, champion of 13 titles and that has won the last 7 Champions League finals that it has played, the last four years ago precisely against Liverpool in the remembered final of Salah’s injury in an action with Ramos, of the superb performance of Bale and the terrible one of the goalkeeper ‘red’ Karius. Carlo Ancelotti’s team has given a recital of “miracles” in this edition, led by the faith of a stellar Karim Benzema, author of 15 goals and several recitals in the knockout phase against PSG, Chelsea, and Manchester City. He is the great name of the meringues this year, a clear favorite for the Ballon d’Or, and the main protagonist of his team’s goals, with another of the already white heroes, Rodrygo, and Vinicius Jr as the only ones to perforate the ball on more than one occasion. rival goal.

Real arrive without a doubt, with the entire squad one hundred percent available and with practically a month of ‘relax’ after tying LaLiga even before knowing that they were going to Paris with the already historic KO of Guardiola’s City. All the while suffering to get through rounds has reinforced his conviction that he has every chance of winning the grand final. And for extra, with the morbidity of being able to win it in Paris against Kylian Mbappé, after his notorious pumpkins, from the president of PSG, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, and the president of UEFA, Ceferin, with the background of the bitter dispute for the Super League that they maintain with the president of Real Madrid, Florentino Pérez. The merengue plan, in short, seems to be what has been seen so much in ‘memes’ this season: the ball to Benzema, although there is much more behind it, such as the physical work of Pintus that has led them to even surpass the Premier physical and the experience of a champion group.

The main problem for Ancelotti’s men is that the finals are played by two and in front of them they have a Liverpool champion of 6 Champions and that is no small thing. Jürgen Klopp’s team arrives after an exhausting season that culminates today after a hellish month of May in which they won the FA Cup on penalties against Chelsea, and fought for the Premier title until last weekend when City certified it in a heart attack last day.

Although without rest for his cracks and despite the difficult schedule, Klopp continues with his characteristic optimism and confidence before the game of the season. His project is solid, with three Champions League finals in the last five years, Salah is more than motivated and recovers Thiago, the great doubt of the ‘red’ for the final and a fundamental rudder in his scheme. The former Barça player trained normally yesterday in a session in which everything was laughter, with what is expected for the ‘red’ eleventh gala at the Stade de France.

The presence of the former culé allows Liverpool to retain the ball and exploit the bands with its two full-backs, Alexander-Arnold and Robertson, who are the top assists for the ‘red’ in the Champions League. And it should be remembered that in the European Cup final that the Merseyside team won over Real Madrid in 1981, they did so by a tight 1-0, a goal precisely from the left side of that team, Alan Kennedy, and precisely in Paris.