But his colleague in the Senegalese attack Sadio Mané refused to talk about revenge, he said, when asked about that «both, both. It is a matter for Salah. For us, it’s a match like any other match ».
It is certain that today’s match at the Stade de France will not be like any other match, but rather will be Liverpool’s third final in the main continental competition during the past five seasons, after compensating for the fall of Kyiv by winning the title the following season at the expense of his compatriot Tottenham.
Many believe that Liverpool has a slight advantage and appears closest to the seventh title, which will put it at the same distance from AC Milan in second place on the list of the most crowned clubs, far ahead of its next opponent, who was crowned champion on 13 occasions, including three in a row between 2016 and 2018 and four in five seasons after also winning the 2014 title.
And if Liverpool manages to emerge victorious, German coach Jurgen Klopp’s team will culminate in a wonderful season, during which he won the two local cups and was close to the league title before Manchester City won it by a point in the final stage.
Klopp said that “without winning the Champions League, it would be a great season, but with winning the Champions League it would be an amazing season,” while Scottish full-back Andy Robertson said that “there is no better feeling than winning titles.”
Manet refused to talk about revenge, considering it a “match like any other.”
But who will face the “Reds” today is not any team, but Real, which specializes in the Champions League, whose name is associated with the prestigious cup, the team supervised by Italian Carlo Ancelotti, the three-time winner and four-time finalist. If he wins, the Italian will become the first coach ever to be crowned champions of the competition four times, whether in its previous (European Champions Cup) or current format.
The Italian, who had previously won the title with Real in his first pass in 2014, will be in front of a personal revenge because the only final he lost was against Liverpool in particular in 2005 in Istanbul when he and his former team Milan seemed on their way to the title by ending the first half 3-0, before returning Steven Gerrard and his companions from afar in the second half to equalize 3-3 and then decided the title on penalties.
Despite the criticism leveled at him at the beginning of his second adventure in the “Santiago Bernabeu”, Ancelotti succeeded in leading the royal club to dominate the local league, to reach its decision four stages before the end of the season, while his team imposed themselves “kings” of returning from afar after the exciting path in Champions League this season.
Drawing on his experience in the finals, Ancelotti said: “We are preparing for the match calmly and focusing on what we have and what we want to do. We’re very excited. We are playing the most important game in world football and we will give everything we have. This club has won a lot.”
He revealed that the most difficult moment before the final “is the last three or four hours before that… But fortunately everything is shattered by the start of the match.”
After Saint Petersburg was stripped of hosting the final due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Stade de France in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis will host the match with a capacity of 80,000 spectators, including 20,000 for both teams officially. It is expected that 40,000 Liverpool fans who do not have tickets come to Paris, where 7,000 policemen are deployed to ensure the safety of the match.