Ucl: Real Madrid-Liverpool 3-1, as it happened...
MATCH PREVIEW:
- This is Real Madrid’s 16th appearance in a European Cup/Champions League final, more than any other side in the history of the competition.
- Indeed, they’ve won it a record 12 times, losing only in 1962 (vs Benfica), 1964 (vs Inter) and 1981 (vs Liverpool).
- This is Liverpool’s eighth European Cup/Champions League final, three more than any other English side.
- The Reds have lost just two of their previous seven finals in the competition, vs Juventus in 1985 and their most recent one against Milan in 2007.
- Real Madrid are the first team since Juventus (1996-1998) to reach three consecutive European Cup/Champions League finals, while they could become the first team to win it three years in a row since Bayern Munich (1974-1976).
- This will be a repeat of the 1981 European Cup final, which Liverpool won 1-0 thanks to an Alan Kennedy goal. It will be the third final to have been played in the competition as both the European Cup and Champions League, following Ajax vs Juventus and Ajax vs Milan.
- That 1981 final was the last time Real Madrid lost the showpiece – they’ve won each of their six finals since then, all in the Champions League (1998, 2000, 2002, 2014, 2016 and 2017).
- Spanish sides have won their last six major European finals against English sides (excluding Super Cups), most recently Sevilla beating Liverpool in the 2016 Europa League. However, Liverpool were the last English side to beat a Spanish side in a final, triumphing 5-4 over Alaves in the 2001 UEFA Cup.
- This will be the sixth meeting in all competitions between these sides – Liverpool won the first three by an aggregate score of 6-0, while Real Madrid won the last two meetings, both in 2014-15 (3-0 and 1-0).
- Liverpool are the top scorers in the Champions League this season with 40 goals. - - Only Barcelona (45 in 1999-00) and Real Madrid (41 in 2013-14) have ever scored more in a single campaign in the competition.
- The Reds have also kept six clean sheets in the competition this season – no side has kept more (level with Barcelona).
- Zinedine Zidane has become the first manager to reach three consecutive Champions League finals since Marcello Lippi (1996-1998).
- Zidane could become the third manager to win the European Cup/Champions League three times (after Bob Paisley and Carlo Ancelotti), while he’d be the first to win it in three consecutive seasons.
- This is Jurgen Klopp’s second appearance in the Champions League final, having previously lost with Borussia Dortmund to Bayern Munich in 2013. Three managers have lost their first two Champions League finals – Massimiliano Allegri (2015 and 2017), Diego Simeone (2014 and 2016) and Hector Cuper (2000 and 2001).
- In fact, Klopp has lost five of his six major finals as manager (2x DFB-Pokal, 1 Champions League, 1 League Cup, 1 Europa League), winning the DFB-Pokal with Borussia Dortmund in 2012.
- Cristiano Ronaldo has scored more Champions League final goals than any other player (4), with the Portuguese scoring in a record three different finals in the competition (since 1992-93 - 2008, 2014 and 2017).
- Ronaldo could become the first player to score in consecutive finals in the Champions League era, while the last player to do so in the European Cup was Franz Roth (1975 and 1976).
- No player to have played for Liverpool this season has ever previously appeared in a Champions League final.
- Cristiano Ronaldo (15 goals, 3 assists) and Roberto Firmino (10 goals, 7 assists) are the two players with the most goal involvements in the Champions League this season.
- Liverpool’s trio of Mohamed Salah (10), Roberto Firmino (10) and Sadio Mane (9) have scored more goals than any other trio at a club in a single Champions League campaign, overtaking Real Madrid’s threesome of Cristiano Ronaldo (17), Gareth Bale (6) and Karim Benzema (5) in 2013-14.
- James Milner has provided a competition-high eight assists in the Champions League this season, while teammate Roberto Firmino is close behind on seven. No player has ever registered nine in a single campaign since Opta have this data available (2003-04).
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