The 2018 UEFA Champions League Final will be hosted in Kiev on May 26th and it will be European giants Liverpool and Real Madrid who will be battling it out for the top honour. Real Madrid had a nervy contest against Bayern Munich to get through and make it to their third consecutive Final and Liverpool weren’t without a scare or two in their duel with Roma.
The match is being played at the NSC Olimpiyskiy Stadium where Spain beat Italy in the final of Euro 2012. Real Madrid, for administration purposes only are going to be the ‘home’ team for the match.
Champions League Final Betting Odds
Real Madrid 5/4, Liverpool 2/1, Draw 13/5* (betting odds taken on May 2nd, 20187 at 10:22 p.m.)
Road To The Final
Real Madrid: Real Madrid were drawn alongside Apoel Nicosia, Borussia Dortmund and Tottenham in the group stage. Things started as expected for the Spaniards who won their opening two games. But then they managed just the one point from their two games against Spurs, putting them on the back foot. Even though Los Merengues took wins over APOEL and Dortmund again, it wasn’t enough to catch Tottenham, so the reigning champions qualified for the round of sixteen in second place. That gave them a tough tie against PSG and the Spaniards were underdogs to qualify against the French outfit. But Real showed great nous in winning 3-1 at home in the first leg and rounding off the tie with a win in Paris too.
Then came Juventus, the side they beat in last year’s final. After the first leg, Real Madrid were cursing at 3-0 up, but Juve had them rattled in Rome. The Italians fought their way back level and things looked set to go to extra time before Real Madrid were awarded a late penalty which Cristiano Ronaldo converted. Then came another tough battle for them as they had to deal with Bayern Munich. Without playing well in ether leg somehow Real Madrid managed to hang on in there and win through 4-3 on aggregate. They have certainly done it the hard way but did score at least two goals in nine of their twelve games, but took just three clean sheets. Cristiano Ronaldo scored in ten of their twelve games on the road to the Final.
Liverpool: Liverpool were drawn alongside Hoffenheim in the qualification round of this season’s Champions League which they came through easily 6-3 on aggregate. That put them into the group stage where they were drawn alongside Spartak Moscow, Maribor and Sevilla. Liverpool got off to a slow start, blowing a half time lead at home to end with a draw against Sevilla and then only drew in Moscow in their following game. But then they caught fire, putting ten goals past Maribor in their two meetings, before being frustrated into a draw by Sevilla in their second meeting with the Spaniards. The Reds then powered their way to a 7-0 win at Anfield to beat Spartak Moscow in their final game.
That put Liverpool through to the round of sixteen where they met Porto. Liverpool killed the tie in the first leg away from home, winning 5-0 in Portugal. They were underdogs for their quarter-final tie against fellow Premier League side Manchester City, but another awesome display of attacking power saw the Reds win 5-1 on aggregate. Then there was another goal-fest against Roma in the semi-finals. Liverpool landed a 5-2 win at Anfield in the first leg and had to sweat through things a little towards the end in Rome, losing the second leg 4-2, dodging some big penalty calls against them to win 7-6 aggregate. With their scoring power, the 2/1 odds on offer at bet365* (betting odds taken on May 2nd, 20187 at 10:22 p.m.)on them winning the match will have great appeal.
Real Madrid v Liverpool previous meetings
There have been five previous games between Liverpool and Real Madrid. The first-ever meeting was a historic one as it was in the 1980/81 European Cup Final. It wasn’t the greatest of games as they both cancelled each other out, but Liverpool got the breakthrough in the 82nd minute with Alan Kennedy netting the only goal of the game at the Parc des Princes.
The following meetings didn’t happen until the 2008/09 UEFA Champions League first knockout round and it Liverpool who came out again on top. Yossi Benayoun gave Liverpool a 1-0 away win in the first leg and then the Premier League side romped to a 4-0 success back at Anfield, Steven Gerrard getting a brace. The tables were turned though when they were next together.
Liverpool didn’t get a look when they met in the 2014/15 UEFA Champions League group stage. Real Madrid strolled to a 3-0 win at Anfield on match day three, before securing a 1-0 win back at home. Karim Benzema scored three goals in those games against the Reds.
Real Madrid Form and Preview
Real Madrid are the most successful European side ever. They have won the European Cup/Champions League twelve times before in their history and three of the last four finals. Their strike rate is phenomenal as they have won twelve of their fifteen European Cup finals. Overall their form hasn’t looked all that great really through this season’s tournament, but they have shown tremendous character and they have survived. Their route to the final was considerably harder than the one that Liverpool faced.
Having knocked out PSG, Juventus and Bayern Munich that is a considerable achievement. They have had their backs against the wall at times, they have relied on the brilliance of Cristiano Ronaldo at times and the reigning champions have bent but they have not broken and that makes them a huge threat in the final. Defensively they have looked frail and both teams to score at bet365 is at 4/9 odds* (betting odds taken on May 2nd, 20187 at 10:22 p.m.)
Liverpool Form and Preview
This is the first European final for Liverpool since the 2004-05 season when they produced that stunning comeback against Milan in Istanbul. That gave them their fifth European title. The did make it back to the 2007 Final but they lost against Milan as the Italians took some revenge. Liverpool, in comparison to Real Madrid, have arguably benefited from the draw in the knockout stages of the competition. But you still have to win games and that has been what Liverpool have done through sheet attacking force.
Jurgen Klopp’s men have produced some scintillating forward play in their domestic and European campaigns, with their star man being Mo Salah who has returned ten goals in his season’s competition. But the true power of Liverpool’s attack can be seen by the ten goals that Roberto Firmino has also netted in the tournament for them this season, and the nine from Sadio Mane. They scored seventeen goals in their three knockout rounds compared to the thirteen by Real Madrid.
History
It has been all Spain recently in the UEFA Champions League title race, with Real Madrid winning three of the last four and Barcelona getting one in the 2014/15 season. That’s some dominance. The last time that an English side won the tournament was in the 2011/12 season when Chelsea secured that dramatic penalty shootout win over Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena, Munich.
Spain have produced 17 winners of the European Cup/Champions League down the years, more than any other country. Italy and England are level with twelve wins each and then comes Germany with seven wins. The only other two countries to have produced wins on more than one occasion are the Netherlands (6) and Portugal (4). In total there have been 22 different winners of the European Cup/Champions League, of them the most successful being Real Madrid with 12 titles.
Cristiano Ronaldo is the top scorer in the history of the competition with a ridiculous 120 goals in 152 appearances since his debut in 2003. Lionel Messi is the only one close to him and he has produced 100 goals in 125 appearances which is actually a slightly better rate of goals per game than Ronaldo. Ronaldo will be top scorer again this season most likely and the seventh season that he has finished as top scorer for a Champions League season (his sixth successive one). During the 2017/18 campaign, he has also broken his own record for the most goals scored in a single Champions League season.
Liverpool are just one of four teams ever to have won the tournament after having played in a qualification round (2004/05). Real Madrid are just one of three teams to have successfully defended a European title on more than one occasion (5), the other two being Ajax (twice) and Bayern Munich (twice). Liverpool’s sole successful title defence happened in the 1977/788 season. Real Madrid remains the only ones to have done in the Champions League era.
Predictions
There is no reason that Liverpool should be afraid to not stick to their plans and just get at Real Madrid. The defence of the Spaniards has been pretty shoddy throughout the tournament and they have really rode their luck at times. Liverpool all the offensive tools that they need to carve open the back line of the Champions and this is a very winnable task ahead for the Reds. Back the Reds to get across the line with the silverware in their hands and both teams will probably score.
