In the early morning of Beijing time on the 29th, the final battle of this season's Champions League is about to start, and at the Stade de France in Paris, Real Madrid and Liverpool are about to usher in another dialogue after 4 years. Will real Madrid achieve 14 crowns this time, or will Liverpool complete their revenge?
The road to advancement
Real Madrid's road to the Champions League can be described as a twist and turn, countless times almost out, but the team with tenacious willpower, three consecutive rounds of knockout rounds have completed the reversal. Against Paris, Benzema wore a hat with 3 goals in the second half and overtook to advance 0-2;
Against Chelsea, chelsea played 3-0 at home in a good situation, and the wonderful combination of Modric and Rodrigo allowed Real Madrid to drag into extra time, and finally It was Benzema who completed the kill;
Against Manchester City, until the 90th minute, Real Madrid was still behind by 2 goals, and it was Rodrigo again, 2 goals in 3 minutes, and forced the game into extra time, and finally Benzema won the penalty.
Compared with Real Madrid, Liverpool is slightly more relaxed, facing Inter Milan in the first round of knockouts, who have only returned to the Champions League knockout rounds after many years, although they were blocked by Inter at Anfield, but with the first leg away victory, Liverpool still won 2-1;
Facing Benfica, Liverpool was obviously more focused on sandwiching between the two legs, and the 2 matches with Manchester City, the aggregate score was 6-4, and the scene was wide open;
Facing the dark horse Villarreal in the semi-finals, Liverpool also like Bayern, almost overturned, and was equalized by the opponent in the second leg, and finally advanced 5-2.
Team profile
At present, the total value of Liverpool teams is 900 million euros, and Real Madrid has 756 million euros; in terms of average age, Liverpool is 27.7 years old and Real Madrid is 28 years old, which is similar;
In terms of manager, Klopp has played against Real Madrid in 9 times, with 3 wins, 2 draws and 4 losses, but these 3 wins were all in the Dortmund era, and 10 against Ancelotti's coaching team, a total of 3 wins, 3 draws and 4 losses.
Carlo Ancelotti has played against Liverpool in 16 times, mostly in Milan, Everton and Chelsea, with 8 wins, 3 draws and 5 losses, dominating; against Klopp, it is 4 wins, 3 draws and 3 losses.
In the two sides, the most expensive players are Salah and Vinicius, both worth 100 million euros, and the goal list against each other, Liverpool do not have active players in the top 5, Benzema is the first 4 goals, Vinicius, Bale and Gerrard are all 2 goals, and Benayoun has also scored 1 goal.
Historical clashes
In the history of the two sides, there are 7 official matches, Real Madrid has 4 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses, occupying an advantage; in the past 10 years, they have met 5 times in the Champions League, Real Madrid remains unbeaten, in the 1415 Champions League group stage, Real Madrid won 2 games; in the Champions League final in the 1718 season, Real Madrid defeated Liverpool 3-1; and in the 1/4 final of the 2021 season, Real Madrid won 1 win and 1 draw in two legs, and eliminated the Reds 3-1 in two legs.
What to watch in the game
1 Ballon d'Or battle between Benzema and Salah
This year's Ballon d'Or will be judged in a season-run manner, that is to say, only the performance of the players in the 2021-2022 season will be officially awarded on October 15, and the World Cup in November will be the measurement range of next year's Ballon d'Or, at present, the global media and journalists generally believe that Benzema has a much greater chance of winning than Salah, Benzema has become the top scorer in La Liga, with only one less assist than Dembele, and at the same time in the Champions League, Benzema has also become the top scorer, 7 more than Salah. Basically locked in the Champions League Golden Boot.
But anything is possible, just imagine, if salah beat Real Madrid on his own in the Champions League final, his probability of winning the Ballon d'Or will be greatly improved, maybe it can be reversed. After all, the Champions League is only about success or failure, no one will remember whether you are second or third in the Champions League, people only recognize the first.
2 Salah's Revenge Battle
Four years ago, in 2018, the Champions League final was also Real Madrid against Liverpool, recalling that game, not only Liverpool's pain, but also Salah's pain, shortly after the first half of that game, Salah was dragged down by Ramos's arm, his arm was fractured and injured, he could not hold on to the game, he had to go down in tears, many Reds fans may remember salah's tears when he came down. In the end, due to the end of the Egyptian pharaoh and the two low-level mistakes of Liverpool goalkeeper Karius later, Liverpool lost 1-3 and missed the Champions League.
This match must still be erased in Salah's mind, and after beating Villarell first to reach the final, Salah made it clear that he hoped the final would take place against Real Madrid. Although Salah was replaced in the middle of the last two league rounds, there were fears that he would miss the final again, but a few days later Salah gave the answer that he was sure to play. Now, Ramos is no longer at Real Madrid, but as long as it is against Real Madrid, Salah will definitely go all out and revive with blood.
3 Ancelotti's Battle of Revenge
If you go and search for the top ten reversals in football, the Istanbul Miracle or Istanbul Night will definitely be the first to jump out. In the 2005 Istanbul Champions League final, the two sides were Liverpool and AC Milan, and Ancelotti was the manager of AC Milan, in the first half, AC Milan led 3-0, everyone thought that AC Milan would win the Champions League, the Second Half reds came to a big turnaround, chased three goals in a row, and finally won the Champions League final on penalties.
If Ancelotti had won the match at that time, it would now be four Champions Leagues in hand, which can be described as the first person in football, but people are not as good as heaven, football is so incredible, the Istanbul miracle has become the eternal talk of fans, and Ancelotti is acting as a background, leaving indelible pain. Therefore, Ancelotti certainly does not want to repeat the mistakes of Istanbul and be used as a talking point again.
Predict the first launch
Real Madrid: Courtois/Carvajal, Militão, Alaba, Mendy/Casemiro, Modric, Kroos/Valverde, Benzema, Vinicius
Liverpool: Alisson/Arnold, Van Dijk, Matip, Robertson/Fabinho, Henderson, Thiago/Salah, Mane, Dias