This coming weekend sees the biggest game in club football take place at Atletico Madrid’s brand-new home stadium, the Wanda Metropolitano. We already know that the final, like the Europa League final on Wednesday night, will be contested between two English Premier League teams as five-times winners of this tournament Liverpool bid to make it six against a Tottenham side who are looking for their first ever Champions League victory.
A win for Spurs would see them join Liverpool in having won every European trophy possible (as Spurs have previously won the now defunct Cup Winners Cup and the UEFA Cup (now Europa League)) but a win for Liverpool would arguably be a fitting end to a brilliant season for Jurgen Klopp’s men but one which so far has not yet yielded them a trophy to match their achievements.
Liverpool also reached the final last year where a combination of Gareth Bale brilliance and Loris Karius incompetence, saw them lose to Real Madrid 3-1 in Kyiv. Still smarting from that loss, Liverpool are now aiming to go one better in Madrid’s back yard against a team that they have already beaten home and away in the Premier League this season (both by a 2-1 scoreline).
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Let’s now take a look at how the season panned out for both these teams and how they reached the final in Madrid on Saturday.
Liverpool – Season Review Final Preview
Liverpool lost just one Premier League game all season, away to Manchester City, but even so they were not able to land the title as Pep Guardiola’s team pipped them by a single point to the title. Even so they finished a massive 25 points clear of Chelsea in third and 26 ahead of their opponents Tottenham in fourth.
To put that in perspective there is an equal gap between Liverpool and Spurs in the league in terms of points, as there is between Spurs and Newcastle United and Bournemouth, who finished in 13th and 14th in the table respectively.
In the domestic cups, Liverpool didn’t really shine but they did play very much under-strength sides in both competitions, being eliminated in the Carabao Cup at home by Chelsea, their only defeat at Anfield in all competitions this season, and losing in the FA Cup in the Third Round to Wolves at Molineux.
In Europe though, it was very much an up and down start to the campaign for the Reds as they were drawn into a tough-looking Group C along with Paris St Germain, Napoli and Red Star Belgrade.
Three defeats, all on the road, a 1-0 loss to Napoli, a 2-0 loss to Red Star Belgrade and a 2-1 defeat to Paris St Germain meant that with two home wins (3-2 over PSG and 4-0 over Red Star Belgrade), Liverpool entered the final round of Group Phase fixtures needing to beat Napoli at Anfield to claim second place in the group behind PSG, a result they achieved thanks to Mo Salah’s clever first half finish.
Having scraped through the Group Stage, Liverpool were then held at home by Bayern Munich in the first leg of their Round of 16 tie with many feeling this would be the Reds undoing, based on their previous away form in the tournament, however Liverpool produced a superb display in Munich to beat Bayern 3-1 at the Allianz Arena to claim a massive statement win.
FC Porto, a team Liverpool had beaten comfortably on their way to the final last season, lay in wait in the quarterfinals and two wins, 2-0 at Anfield and 4-1 in Oporto, put the Reds into a semifinal with Barcelona, the first leg to be held at the Nou Camp.
Barcelona were flattered by the 3-0 scoreline they earned in what was a relatively even contest, but it looked as though Liverpool were set to go out unless a miracle happened at Anfield in the second leg. Only, this is Liverpool and at Anfield miracles can and do happen.
And so it proved in one of the most incredible nights of European football ever witnessed, two goals apiece from Divock Origi and Gini Wijnaldum saw a Liverpool side without the talents of Mo Salah or Roberto Firmino, claim a sensational 4-0 win and a place in the final.
Liverpool Probable Team – 4-3-3 – Alisson, Alexander Arnold, Robertson, Van Dijk, Matip, Henderson, Wijnaldum, Milner, Firmino, Salah, Mane.
Tottenham Season Review Final Preview
After going toe-to-toe with Liverpool and Manchester City for most of the season, Spurs form dipped alarmingly in the league towards the end of the season and in the end they barely held on to a Champions League qualification spot in the table, finishing well of the pace of the top two and in fourth.
There was no doubt that injury to Harry Kane and Dele Alli over that period played a key role in those poorer performances, but both will be back for the final at the weekend, although how fit Kane is remains to be seen.
Spurs did perform better than Liverpool in the domestic cups reaching the League Cup semifinal, where they lost narrowly over two legs to Chelsea, and they also reached the FA Cup Fourth Round, where they went down to a 2-0 defeat to Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park.
Their Champions League campaign began in Group B where they were drawn with Barcelona, Inter Milan and PSV Eindhoven in what looked like a very tough group and so it proved as after defeats in their opening two games at Inter and at Home to Barcelona, they could only muster a 2-2 draw in Eindhoven against PSV, leaving them with just one point from. their opening three games.
However a narrow win over PSV followed by another last gasp win against Inter left them needing to better Inter Milan’s result in the final game of the group to progress and while Inter faltered, losing to PSV in their final game, Spurs managed a late equaliser to draw 1-1 in the Nou Camp against Barcelona to claim second spot by the narrowest of margins.
Close escapes would be a recurring theme in the knockout phase too, although initially they made it through easily in the Round of 16 defeating Dortmund 3-0 at home and 1-0 on the road for a 4-0 aggregate victory.
However Manchester City lay in wait in the quarterfinals and after a 1-0 win at home, Spurs battled hard to lose 4-3 in the second leg, but with the away goals rule in action, they progressed at City’s expense, becoming the only team to eliminate City from a competition so far this season.
As incredible as it seems, more drama would follow in the semifinal against the surprise team in this year’s tournament Ajax. The Dutch side earned a 1-0 win in London and were 2-0 up at half time in the second leg in Amsterdam before Tottenham staged a remarkable comeback. Two goals in quick succession in the second half from Lucas Moura made it 2-2 on the night and left Spurs needing just one more goal to clinch an unlikely away goals win. It came with almost the last kick of the game in the 96th minute and it was Lucas Moura’s shot to complete his hat-trick that earned Spurs the place in the final.
Tottenham Probable Team – 4-3-3 – Lloris, Trippier, Rose, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Sissoko, Eriksen, Dier, Son, Kane, Moura
Liverpool v Tottenham Final Tips
If we are looking at the full time result then I think most of the factors you can look at point to a Liverpool win. They are the team in form, they have beaten Spurs twice already this season, they smashed Barcelona 4-0 at Anfield (Spurs lost 4-2 at home to the same Barcelona team) and they finished 26 points ahead of Tottenham in the Premier League.
Spurs may have Harry Kane coming back into the team but the Reds will also have Firmino back from injury and I think defensively, the Reds are much better, strong and in much better form than Spurs. I also feel Spurs have had more than their fair share of good fortune to reach this far in the tournament and I think Saturday may be the night it runs out.
I am expecting Liverpool to win this one relatively comfortably, so I am backing Liverpool to win at 19/20 and a 3-1 correct score tip for Liverpool is 14/1.
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