Ronaldo, Salah clash in Champions League final 

The eyes of the world will be on the NSC Olimpiyskiy Stadium in Kiev on Saturday (today) as two genuine European heavyweights compete for the Champions League trophy in club football’s biggest match.
Twelve-time champions Real Madrid are looking to lift the trophy for the third year in a row, but to do so they will need to stop a free-scoring Liverpool outfit who are bidding for their first European crown since 2005 and their sixth overall.
Things have not gone to plan domestically for Madrid either, with last weekend’s season-ending 2-2 draw with Villarreal confirming a third-placed finish – their joint-worst since 2003-04 and a full 17 points adrift of champions Barcelona.
Madrid have now kept just one clean sheet in their last 11 matches across all competitions, while they have managed only three in their 12 Champions League outings, but they have also scored in each of their last 29 European games.
Meanwhile, the most famous of Liverpool’s European triumphs came 13 years ago in Istanbul, though, when a team that finished fifth in the Premier League that season produced an unforgettable comeback against an AC Milan side littered with some of the best players of the generation.
The class of 2017-18 now have the chance to join Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher, Xabi Alonso and others in Liverpool folklore, and ending Madrid’s iron grip over the competition would earn them immortal status amongst the club’s fans.
Mohamed Salah is perhaps close to that already following a remarkable season which has seen him scoop a clean sweep of the individual awards and break the all-time Premier League goalscoring record for a 38-game season, and there may just be part of the Egyptian winger with one eye on Ian Rush’s all-time club record of 47 goals in a season; he would require a hat-trick in the final to match that tally.
Salah’s supporting cast have been every bit as important to Liverpool’s success in this season’s competition, though, and he, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino have scored 29 Champions League goals between them in 2017-18 – the most prolific trio in the competition’s history, having overtaken Madrid’s cast of Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema.
Indeed, Liverpool as a team have scored an unprecedented 46 goals in the Champions League this season including qualifiers, and even disregarding their triumph over Hoffenheim to reach the group stages they are on course to break the record for a 13-game European season, which coincidentally is currently held by Madrid.
Unlike Madrid, Liverpool topped their Champions League group – helped by 7-0 wins over Maribor and Spartak Moscow along the way – but it wasn’t until a ruthless 5-0 victory over Porto at the Estadio Do Dragao in the last 16 that they really came on the radar as possible winners.
The competition got tougher still in the quarter-finals when they took on tournament favourites Manchester City, but victories home and away against a team that broke all sorts of records on their way to the Premier League title this season only enhanced their reputation as genuine contenders.
Another scintillating display saw them seemingly put Roma out of contention after one leg of the semi-finals – although the Italian outfit’s two late goals in their 5-2 defeat left the door slightly ajar. In the end Liverpool needed all of their three-goal advantage as they lost 4-2 at the Stadio Olimpico, which also ended their unbeaten run in this season’s competition.
It has been a hugely successful return to the Champions League for Liverpool, then, and domestically they have achieved their goal of another top-four finish too, meaning that whatever happens on Saturday night, Klopp and co will be back in this competition next season.

Real Madrid possible XI: Navas, Carvajal, Ramos, Varane, Marcelo, Modric, Casemiro, Kroos, Asensio, Bale, Ronaldo.
Liverpool possible XI: Karius, Alexander-Arnold, Lovren, Van Dijk, Robertson, Wijnaldum, Henderson, Milner, Salah, Firmino, Mane.