Cor Blimey! Are We Living in a Cave?
The biggest match in European club football is a matter of hours away and nobody's noticed? What more with 2 clubs with 17 trophies between them. And possessing not only arguably Europe's most potent attacks, but with 2 of it's most prolific strikers.
(Do allow me a 'little jibe,' I guess there's no connection between Derby and European competition, especially this 1!😜 )
Ok back to the match itself. Promises to be a cracker, if both teams do what they do best - score goals. Real obviously have experience. For this generation of Liverpool players, this is their first taste of a CL Final, although some did play in the Europa League Final previously.
Klopp has been to a Final before, while Zidabe is Mr CL himself. Hopefully Klopp being Klopp, urges his team to attack the rather fluid Madrid defense.
Ronaldo is the player of big matches, heck, he's a player for any match. Take your eye off him and the ball is in the net. Even if you mark him, you may not succeed.
However he's clearly been showing signs of slowing down. The ability is always there but the capability to go full tilt for 90 minutes, is probably beyond him now.
Hence, the key player to Ronaldo lighting up the Final, is Gareth Bale. I get La Liga and CL here in Asia and I must say Bale is now playing like the Bale at Spurs. Maybe even better. He's the engine for Ronaldo. Running at dedenders, passing, crossing and weaving. And scoring to boot. The 1 downside is that by the last 10 mins, he's run himself to the ground, but in doing so, he allows Ronaldo to cast his magic spell.
Liverpool have Mo Salah obviously. What more superlatives can we add to his burgeoning list? But alongside him, there's Mane and Firminho. To match the threat of Ronaldo, Bale and Benzema (although he's usually a sub these days).
Real also have the better midfield, Kroos, Isco and Modric, Casemiro compared to Milner, Henderson Wynaldjum (sp).
Defensively Liverpool look more compact and right as opposed to Real policy of defenders themselves going forward or starting attacks.
The 1 fear, most neutrals will have, is that more often than not, after all the hype, the game itself is a damp squid. Nobody wants to risk it. Instead each awaits the others mistake rather than producing one's own brilliance.
But surely given both teams reputations, style of play and both manager's footballing philosophy, we should get what was said in the 'brochure.'