The magnificent Saint-Denis’s Stade de France in Paris will host the final of the UEFA Champions League in over three weeks.
The majestic grandeur will allow two of Europe’s best teams; Real Madrid, the 13-time winners of the glamorous competition, and Liverpool, an old warhorse of some sort in the competition, to battle on the fringes of arguably one of the world’s most beautiful cities.
Real Madrid and Liverpool are no strangers to each other in the competition, which the latter has also won six times. They have met eight times in the competition, and the La Liga champions can boast of four wins against The Reds’ three and a draw. Those are the statistics that separate two of the symbolic clubs in the Champions League.
Both foes have met in the final of the UCL twice, and they have ended on the podium one apiece. The English club won the 1980/81 final 1-0, while the Los Blancos won the Kyiv final 3-1 in 2018, which is memorable for the Loris Karius’ howler on the night that should be for glory.
That same night, Liverpool’s forward, Mohamed Salah, conceived his theory of ‘unfinished business’ against Real; after he was wrestled and hurled to the ground in Rugby-styled fashion by Sergio Ramos. The tackles left the Egyptian with a broken arm and were tearfully aided off the pitch 25 minutes into the clash at the NSC Olimpiyskiy Stadium.
Ramos, the guilty party, left the Spanish side last season, but four years on, Liverpool’s highest goal scorer this season with 30 goals in 45 matches, still bears grudges and is determined to get back his pound of flesh.
After Liverpool saw off Villarreal in the semi-final on Tuesday, the 29-year-old quickly said he hopes to face the Los Merengues in the final this year.“We have a score to settle,” he wrote after the club booked their third final in five years.
Players of both sides have blood running in their veins, but they have been near perfectionists this season. Liverpool is chasing a quadruple of titles this campaign and Real has already been crowned La Liga champions for the 2021/22 season.
Aside from the mouthwatering clash that we all anticipate on May 28, we wait to see if the Carlo Ancelotti side will die, then come back from the dead for the fourth time of asking in the competition this season against the Jurgen Klopp soldiers, who are perhaps the most feared attack in the world currently.
