It is expected that the confrontation between Liverpool and Real Madrid in the final price of the European Champions League will be full of many exceptional confrontations between the stars of the two teams.
Liverpool and Real Madrid confrontations have become familiar in recent years, as they met 4 times during the last 5 editions of the European Champions League, in matches that witnessed unrivaled royal supremacy.
The stars of Real Madrid and Liverpool left many historical imprints during the two teams’ recent confrontations, which are reviewed in the following report by Al Ain Sports.
Courtois Wall
The 2022 European Champions League final at the Stade de France in the French capital, Paris, on May 28, saw the remarkable brilliance of Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois.
Courtois saved many balls from Liverpool striker Mohamed Salah and his colleagues, Senegalese Sadio Mane – the current Bayern Munich player – and Spaniard Thiago Alcantara.
And Courtois achieved a record against Liverpool in last year’s final, as he made nine saves during the match that his team decided 1-0, which is the largest number of saves by a goalkeeper in the history of the two-eared cup final matches.
Good jinx
For his part, Salah achieved another number during the same match in which he starred, but he missed success in scoring goals.
And Salah became the first player in history to hit 6 balls on goal in the final match, in which no goal was scored.
The match witnessed Salah shooting 9 balls, including 6 on the goal, in addition to sending him two key and cross passes and 37 passes, with a mastery rate of 89.2%.
The nightmare Vinicius
Brazilian Vinicius Jr., Real Madrid winger, has turned into a nightmare for Liverpool in recent years. Since his arrival in the royal team from Flamengo in the summer of 2018, he scored 3 goals in 3 confrontations against the Reds.
Vinicius led Real Madrid to a big 3-1 victory over Liverpool in the first leg of the European Champions quarter-finals in the 2020-2021 season, where he scored his team’s first and third goals, which led Al-Abyad to qualify for the semi-finals after a goalless draw in the second leg.
While the most important goal was in the “De France” final, when Vinicius scored in the 59th minute, the goal that crowned Real Madrid the title for the 14th time in its history.
Valverde flame
The 2020-2021 season was one of the first seasons that witnessed Federico Valverde’s brilliance with Real Madrid, and the Liverpool meeting at Anfield, in the second leg of the quarter-finals, had a major role in this matter.
Valverde shone on two occasions against Liverpool, knowing that both times, he was active in a position other than his main midfield.
The first time was in “Anfield” in April 2021, when he played as a right-back and succeeded in stopping the danger of Sadio Mane, while the second was in the 2022 final, where he played as a winger and set up the winning goal for his team, Vinicius Junior.
Ancelotti conqueror club
Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti succeeded in strikingly outperforming German Jurgen Klopp, his counterpart in Liverpool, in the Champions League.
The two coaches met in the cup with ears, 7 times, Ancelotti won 4 times compared to only two times for Klopp and tied once.
At the level of knockout matches, Ancelotti excelled in the quarter-finals of the 2013-2014 season with a score of 3-2 on aggregate, as the Italian was leading Real in the first term, while Klopp was coach of Borussia Dortmund, in addition to the 2022 final.
In addition, the two coaches met 4 times in the group stage when Ancelotti was coach of Napoli during the 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 seasons, as Napoli won twice 1-0 and 2-0 and tied once 1-1, while Liverpool won 1-0.