The domestic football season might be over, but the world awaits the European Champions League Final this weekend in Kiev, Ukraine. With reigning champions and 12-time winners Real Madrid taking on 5-time winners Liverpool in a game which promises goals- and plenty of them!
There’s no doubt that experience is very much in the hands of Real Madrid having won the competition back-to-back seasons, defeating Juventus 2-1 in last year’s final.
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This season, however, has been somewhat underwhelming in truth, with their lowest league points return since 2007. The Galácticos, however, they have had no such issues in Europe, knocking out this season’s French, Italian AND German domestic league winners en route to facing Liverpool in the final. |
Liverpool haven’t competed in the Champions League knockout stages since 2008/09 when they reached the QF stage, a game which signalled the end of a very positive run, having previously been semi-finalists in 2007-08, runners-up in 2006/07, and, of course, memorably winners in 2005-06 after beating AC Milan on penalties having trailed 3-0 at half-time.
One thing that both sides do have in common is that they have both been in tremendous goal scoring form throughout this year’s competition. Indeed, they are the two top scoring sides, with the Reds leading the way with 40 goals in total, a whopping 10 more than Real Madrid who have scored no less than 30 times- including 15 from the irrepressible Cristiano Ronaldo.
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It’s fair to say that if Liverpool are to have any chance of denying Real a trio of successive European titles, they’ll not only need their goal scoring trio of Salah, Mane & Firmino to cause problems on the counter, but they’ll also need a rock solid performance from their defence which has been prone to leaking goals – conceding 7 goals in their last 3 Champions League games.
Real Madrid are understandably favourites at 8/13 to lift the trophy with Liverpool at 6/5 whilst over 2.5 goals is 4/9 & both teams to score is 2/5. |
