The English football club, which has won six Champions Leagues, faces Real Madrid, the most successful club in the history of the competition (13 coronations), this Saturday May 22, 2022 at the Stade de France, in Saint-Denis. A dream poster between two of the biggest clubs in the world, whose history is intimately linked to the “Big Ears Cup”.
Difficult to do more prestigious for this meeting which will see the two institutions compete for the third time in the final of the Champions League (C1), after 1981 and 2018.
On the one hand, the Liverpool Reds with the Senegalese Sadio Mané and the Egyptian Mohamed Salah, winners of six C1 against the legendary Real Madrid of Karim Benzema, thirteen trophies on the clock, by far the most successful club in Europe .
Two historic, iconic clubs that have grown with the finest of European competitions, as explained by Patrick Juillard, consultant for Radio Foot Internationale: “ Both teams have built their history with the Champions League. They are remembered through their European performances. They owe almost all their prestige to this competition. We can not find better for this poster. You only have to look at Real’s track record, which is truly a “royal” club at all levels. He is the undisputed champion of the Champions League… As for the Liverpool Reds, winners in 2019, they are still close to winning the trophy, the club has a team cut out for that which has come out of all the little ones traps. There, there is a bigger one on his way! We will see if the step is not too high but it is very difficult to identify a favorite. »
Liverpool-Real Madrid: a game in the match for the Ballon d’Or 2022
Real Madrid will have the advantage of experience
The people of Madrid know by heart how to approach these kinds of events. It is understood, they have already won the trophy thirteen times, more than double than any other European club.
Eight players in the squad, including captain Karim Benzema, will play in their fifth Champions League final. The club has therefore seen others, but that does not prevent Carlo Ancelotti, the coach, from having great admiration for Liverpool: “ It’s a club that I respect a lot because one of the things I like best about my job is to see that stadiums can grow behind their teams. This is the case with us at the Santiago Bernabeu, but also at Anfield where the public ardently supports its players, it’s magnificent. It’s special to play this final against the Reds. »
Liverpool want revenge
The English have already won the FA Cup (FA CUP) and the League Cup, two national trophies, before losing their showdown with Manchester City to win the Championship (Premier League). Jürgen Klopp’s men missed a point to be crowned. They will try to console themselves with a new line to their list, the most prestigious. History also to take their revenge on the 2018 final won by Real, at the Olympic Stadium in kyiv.
The Reds had lost 3 goals to 1 after losing their star Mohamed Salah prematurely, injured after half an hour of play. His team had not recovered and the Egyptian obviously did not digest this episode : “ It was the worst moment of my career, I was really depressed at that time… Yet I had had a good season, it’s the worst thing that can happen to a player. As a footballer, I had never felt this kind of feeling before… In addition it was the first Champions League final for many of us and it was difficult to move on. »
The Egyptian will be one of the men to follow in this final with the Senegalese Sadio Mané, who has been in very good shape since the start of 2022. They will be supported by 60,000 supporters from Liverpool, who will not all be able to attend. the encounter. The disappointed can still go to a dedicated fanzone in the south of Paris.