It really seems to be the worst month. For Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp, there is something brutal and even grimly comical about the current series of finals and last days, these razor-thin boundaries at the end of a glorious, grueling year.
Liverpool have played 62 games this season and lost just three. They have one more, a bravura Champions League final against Real Madrid in Saint-Denis on Saturday night, a match that has already been moved twice, spent on a kind of tour of Bourne in glamorous places in the UEFA zone, through Munich, St. Petersburg and finally to Paris.
And while it may seem absurd, frivolous and simply wrong to say that the season will be decided by a victory or defeat at the Stade de France, that nine months of something close to sporting excellence, now two trophies deep, will be judged as success or failure of a one-time game; is probably also true.
This is the beauty and also the viciousness of elite sports. This is also a sign of the exceptional quality of this mature team of Klopp. By all reasonable measures, Liverpool are already there. This team won the Champions League. They have those deeper notes, structures, regenerating every surface of the club. And yet, right now, a final like this, a real one-time blue chip, may be exactly what Liverpool needs.
For all the peaks so far, there is still a sense of being that is yet to find its final form to test its own determinant high. Often it’s just a matter of how bodies fall. The final victory in the Champions League against Tottenham Hotspur was decisive, indisputable, master’s; but also, ultimately, a Champions League final against Tottenham Hotspur. Winning the league with 18 points was a wonderful feat, but also an experience obscured by quarantine conditions.
Paris on Saturday is something else, at least in terms of scale. Here is an opportunity to show the world how good this team is, in the most cinematic of one-off events. The big teams tend to have these moments, from Milan’s gutting of Barcelona at the height of Saki’s years in Capello, to Manchester United’s paroxysms against Bayern Munich, to Barcelona’s brutal perfection from the Pepper era at Wembley in 2011.
Liverpool “motivated to win” after losing in the Champions League to Real Madrid in 2018 – video
This is more than just theater. For Klopp, there is a more immediate tactical note in the perspective of facing opponents of this quality. Liverpool is a narrow favorite. At their best, they are a more consistent, ruthless, powerful team. With a little early wind behind them, they have a chance to cross Madrid.
But there is also a warning note. Liverpool’s recent record against better teams is their only weakness. Why didn’t they win the league this season? The most obvious answer is that in six games against the other members of the four, they collected six draws and not a single goal. They beat diluted Manchester City 3-2 in the FA Cup. The last time Liverpool beat a recent Champions League winner, except after penalties, was 2-0 against Chelsea in September 2020.
Quick guide
The road to Paris
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Liverpool
group B: Maximum points and few fears, as Jurgen Klopp’s team was confirmed at the top of the group with two games until the end. A 5-1 victory over Porto in their second match highlighted the gap and they finished 11 points ahead of second-placed Atletico Madrid. An impromptu team beat Milan 2-1 at the San Siro in the final match.
Round of 16: Inter 0-2 Liverpool; Liverpool 0-1 Inter (Liverpool won 2-1 overall). The late goals of Salah and Firmino secured some victory and Inter could not get enough of Anfield.
Quarter final: Benfica 1-3 Liverpool; Liverpool 3-3 Benfica (Liverpool won 6-4 overall). Benfica’s late return in the return leg, but again the hard work was done by Liverpool as a guest.
Semifinals: Liverpool 2-0 Villarreal; Villarreal 2-3 Liverpool (Liverpool won 5-2 overall). At the halftime of Estadio de la Cerámica, the draw was unexpectedly equal. But Liverpool lit the burners in the second half with goals from Fabinho, Diaz and Manet.
Real Madrid
Group D: Moldovan FC Sheriff took the shock out of the group stage by beating Real 2-1 at the Bernabeu. But Real have won every other match, including both against Inter and a 5-0 away win against Shakhtar Donetsk.
Round of 16: PSG 1-0 Real Madrid; Real Madrid 3-1 PSG (Real wins 3-2 overall). Benzema’s hat-trick in the second half. An epic comeback when everything seemed lost. And so it began.
Quarter final: Chelsea 1-3 Real Madrid; Real Madrid is 2-3 Chelsea (Real wins 5-4 overall). Benzema’s hat-trick in the first game. Chelsea had 10 minutes of normal time in the return leg, but Rodrigo and then Benzema drove out the reigning champions.
Semifinals: Man City 4-3 Real Madrid; Real Madrid is 3-1 Man City (Real wins 6-5 overall). Tie for centuries. City led 3-1 at the Etihad and 1-0 at the Bernabeu, but Real came back both times. Two stunning late goals by Rodrigo led to a tie in overtime and Benzema’s penalty sealed what was then felt inevitable.
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In the last two months, Madrid have beaten Chelsea and City. They also beat Liverpool last year, although it is in the details of this match that the key to Saturday may be hidden.
The finals are usually won in the middle of the field. These are often games that go deep, testing the ability to hold the ball, to establish your own rhythms under tension. It was here that Madrid maintained their advantage in this competition. Modric-Cross-Cassemiro is an era in itself, players of such quality, such intelligence, such great matches that they can find ways to win, they can spend half an hour ahead, but they still know that their moments will come .
Trent Alexander-Arnold’s duel with Vinícius Júnior could be decisive. Photo: David Klein / Reuters
Tony Kroos, in particular, seems exhausted from almost the first minute these days, a footballer who seems to be running through wet sand, but who knows he still has the capacity to influence play at that level.
The Madrid midfielder has an advantage over Liverpool. Luka Modric and Kroos seem to have played easier in the opening hours of the Alfredo Di Stefano Stadium last season, dominating possession and finding time for passes in this red zone behind full-backs. This difference was more pronounced in the final in 2018, when Kroos had 99 touches, Modric 90 and Liverpool midfielder Ginny Vijnaldum, James Milner and Jordan Henderson, who seems to be Modric’s favorite player, spent the night in pursuit.
There are several reasons to suspect that this may already be reversed. First, all the greats of Madrid are older. Kroos may not play if Carlo Ancelotti prefers the high-energy presence of the excellent Eduardo Camavinga. Second, Liverpool can simply get Thiago Alcantara back for Saturday, their only central midfielder in the class to face these kings of pace and touch. His presence – and it is highly questionable – would be a huge step forward.
Third, the team that Liverpool introduced last year had Ozan Kabak and Nat Phillips in defense, a dilution of quality that affects every aspect of their game.
Much has been done by Liverpool’s high defensive line, the way in which the fearlessness of their central defenders in this position allows Klopp to consolidate the game, to turn the press into an act of suffocation. Madrid will have to deal with this pressure. And it is in this middle third that the game can be won and lost.
Liverpool are training at the Stade de France for their third Champions League final in five seasons. Photo: Tom Jenkins / Guardian
The most remarkable element of Liverpool’s battles against the better teams is the way their opponents attacked the space behind their full-backs with quick passes from the central midfielder. The direct confrontation between Vinícius Júnior and Trent Alexander-Arnold is the most obvious point of pressure here.
Both players will be looking for an advantage on this flank. The space that Alexander-Arnold deliberately leaves behind – this is a tactic – by pressing like an attacking playmaker is indeed a source of concern when the midfielder is unable to take control to prevent a player like Kroos from having room to find his range. Klopp has a choice: push your right back into his usual advanced spaces, trust the process and the coverage; or sit deeper, aware that Vinicius and Karim Benzema provide the most obvious edge of Madrid. Either way, so much of it stems from how the center behaves.
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There are other interesting places. Madrid have played a meaningful match in the last four weeks, the home win against City. Benzema and Modric have played less than 180 minutes since then. Liverpool is, if anything, overworked, exhausted from its last things and moments of crisis.
It will hardly matter much. It was pointed out that there is no revenge here, that Real’s progress depends on returning to these relations. But a finale like this is the final rematch. This is the extraordinary time, the end of the game, the moment when you stay pressed and writhe on the wall, every choice, every doubt, every note of weakness, played in the brightest glare.
Liverpool are shooting at a kind of extreme in Paris. For Madrid, this is their comfort zone, the place they try to reach throughout the season. The only question now is: who is flashing in this light?
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