What did Real Madrid’s Sergio Ramos intend when grabbing the Egyptian’s arm? He might say he was reacting to Liverpool’s own concussive approach. Either way Salah was doneAnd fade to white. By the end of a messy, thrilling, occasionally grisly Champions League final in Kiev the most unexpected note was that Liverpool’s fearless run to this stage should end with regrets and a quiver of what might have been.It seemed even crueller still that the final image of Mo Salah’s joyful season should be the sight of the Premier League player of the year leaving the pitch in tears with half an hour gone. But then there are reasons why Real Madrid win these games, why the same faces keep...
The Welshman was the match-winner off the bench but his two goals against Liverpool could prove to be a glorious farewellFor a moment there was silence and then there was a small smattering of applause. At the Liverpool end, they were stunned, and they were not alone. The goal that won the European Cup had to be watched twice and they still couldn’t believe it; even the replay on the giant screen didn’t entirely shake them out of it. For the second time, the second Real Madrid goal, they were left wondering whether that had really happened. The first goal was surreal, perhaps the stupidest the European Cup final has seen; the second was sublime, perhaps even the most brilliant....
Expect some sparkling fare from two great clubs who between them have claimed almost a third of all European CupsIls sont les meilleurs.Sie sind die Besten. Related: Liverpool’s Roberto Firmino: shy, strong-willed – and a complete striker Related: Joker, thinker, friend, dictator: the many faces of Jürgen Klopp Related: ‘I don’t feel like an underdog’: Jürgen Klopp eager for Real redemption Continue reading...
Liverpool’s task in Kiev on Saturday is finding a way of beating a team who feel totally at home in Champions League finalsSaturday’s Champions League final in Kiev promises to be that rare event, a meeting of outstanding teams that lives up to its billing, though the television trailer advertising that the contestants have 17 European Cups between them is economical with the truth.The figure is correct; it is just that Liverpool’s total of five is dwarfed by the Spanish club’s dozen. Not many teams can make Liverpool feel inferior in Europe but Real Madrid can. The current holders of the trophy have a habit of making everyone feel inferior. No one else is in double figures. No one else...
The defining image of this Real team isn’t a priestly boot room or the intellectualism of total football. The defining image of this team is Cristiano Ronaldo’s absOh. He’s here again. The man with the rapacious desire for annihilating success in his eyes. In the end it was a strange kind of glory for Cristiano Ronaldo on Tuesday evening as Real Madrid progressed precariously but also, somehow, inevitably to another Champions League final.There has been a lot of talk about Ronaldo’s stripped-down role in his late prime. But this was a performance of such minimalism it might have been etched on a grain of rice, a vision of the ultimate endgame some years from now whereby Ronaldo is wheeled on...