Pending accounts

Paris sparked a rivalry whose next battle is once again in the City of Light. In 1981, the French capital hosted the final of the European Cup in the Parc des Princes (now it will be in Saint-Denis) against two giants of the competition. A Liverpool that four years earlier had begun to write its history as the flagship of the country that invented football (the reds with the English team with the most titles: six) and a Madrid, that of the Garcias, who was running to reconquer his throne 15 years later. Liverpool won and Madrid would take 17 more to resurrect their idyll with the European Cup and another 20 to collect revenge with Liverpool.

six matchups (the final will be the ninth official match between the two) perhaps they are a meager figure to raise the Madrid-Liverpool to the category of classic that they may have other rivals of the whites, such as Bayern, Juventus or Milan, but the magnitude of the games in which the faces have been seen make this duel worthy of such condition. Because They will also be the first teams that they face each other for third time in a final of the highest continental competition.

Whoever hits first, hits twice. And so did Liverpool. Los reds won their third European Cup at the expense of Madrid by the minimum. a goal of Alan Kennedy, who beat Agustín in the 82nd minute of the final, deprived the Santillana generation of the title, Juanito, Del Bosque, Camacho… Football denied the Whites the opportunity to take revenge until the 2009 round of 16, but it became to impose Liverpool (0-1 at the Bernabéu and 4-0 at Anfield).

It was Ancelotti’s Madrid the one who wrote the first page of the rematchin the 2014-15 group stage, when the Whites won both games (0-3 and 1-0). the big opportunity to redeem the insult of 81 it arrived in the final in kyiv in 2018 and there Madrid, as has been the norm in all his finals after that of Paris, it did not fail. Benzema and Bale both forced Karius’s mistakes and in between the Welshman put the icing on the final with a Chilean goal. Madrid also emerged victorious from last season’s quarterfinals, with an exhibition by Vinicius at Di Stéfano (3-1) to later seal the pass to the semifinals at Anfield (0-0).

The defeat in the kyiv Olympic was very difficult to digest for Klopp’s box. So much so that those who played that night (Alexander-Arnold, Van Dijk, Robertson, Henderson, Milner, Salah, Firmino and Mané) still keep it in her memory. For this reason, they feel the final in Paris as a revenge. Salah made it clear as soon as he sealed the pass to the final in Vila-real. “I want to play with Madrid. I have to be honest, Manchester City is tough, but personally I prefer to play against Madrid and I hope to beat them too,” said the Egyptian in the BT Sport post-match surrounded by Peter Crouch, Michael Owen and Rio Ferdinand.

Bale’s goal

So did James Milner recently, in an interview on The Athletic. “We were there, at the top, against Madrid, We were getting past them and that one floats to the edge of the area and Bale does what he does. It has to be one of the best goals in Champions League history and it changed everything. After that it was hard, difficult to accept, because at that moment I felt that we had it under control”, recalls the captain red.

“We have trained in their training camp two or three times when we played in Madrid and They have all the big European Cups when you walk in. On one it says ‘Kyiv’ underneath. And you think: ‘That could have been ours.’ Their history in the Champions League is incredible, the experience they have, the players, (Karim) Benzema and (Luka) Modric are very dangerous, the coach, the know-how. I think it will be a great match and we definitely owe it to them. It would be nice to give it back once“.

The ‘red’ fans don’t forget Ramos’ play with Salah

Los Kyiv final goals left several iconic images. But the one they retain in their memory, and it hurts Liverpool fans, is the Ramos dispute with Salah in minute 27, in which the Egyptian was injured the right shoulder. Some accused the white captain of premeditatedly going to injure him and promoted a campaign for Ramos to be sanctioned. The Egyptian acknowledged that the move motivated him in the 2019 final against Tottenham.