Well, there’ll be no fairytale Champions League final between Liverpool and Manchester City after Real Madrid’s intervention on Wednesday night.
Real booked a meeting with Liverpool in Paris on May 28 following a dramatic come-from-behind victory over Pep Guardiola’s outfit at the Santiago Bernabeu last night.
Manchester City were minutes away from setting up a mouth-watering tie with their Anfield rivals, but two stoppage-time goals forced the tie to extra time after finishing 5-5 overall, before a Karim Benzema penalty during the additional 30 minutes saw Carlo Ancelotti’s troops advance.
The Spanish giants beat the Reds to win the 2018 final in Kiev, when Loris Karius made a couple of costly errors in a 3-1 defeat for the Premier League club.
And Dejan Lovren, who was part of that Liverpool squad before a £10 million move to Zenit, has written on Twitter that it’s ‘payback time’.
Liverpool will probably be favourites to get that revenge, too.
Jurgen Klopp has built one hell of a squad for himself on Merseyside and although Real have some cracking players, the mite of the Reds’ attacking force is difficult for any defence to combat.
Even if Madrid combat Mohamed Salah, their go-to-guy, there’s still Sadio Mane, Diogo Jota and Luis Diaz to worry about.
Stopping Liverpool will be so difficult but, on the plus side, Ancelotti has won this competition on three occasions and if anyone can devise a masterplan to silence Klopp’s attackers, it’s the veteran Italian manager.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
