Real Madrid head for the Champions League final accusing Liverpool of arrogance. Might European football’s royalty have something to deflect?
As Mediawatch reliably reminds us, there are plenty on the sidelines prepared to twist fairly innocuous comments to fan certain flames for their own gain. But in the build-up to this year’s Champions League final, quotes from Karim Benezma about Liverpool’s perceived arrogance going into this year’s final have raised an eyebrow or two. Indeed, it’s not difficult to see how the centre-forward Benzema might have been playing a little more defensively this week – in the media, at least.
On the eve of the match, we arrive at a peculiar War Of Words from which nobody emerges with a great deal of credit. Interviewed by Futbol en Movistar+, Benzema said: “Liverpool have a lot of confidence, maybe they think they already won the game, maybe they think this isn’t the same Real Madrid as before, that they’re favourites.” This has predictably set social media ablaze, with Liverpool supporters claiming what we might describe as ‘counter-arrogance’, pointing out the shirts with the number ’14’ printed on them – Real Madrid have won the Champions League on 13 previous occasions – after their semi-final against Manchester City.
It’s important to rewind a little here, to draw the lens back and take a slightly broader view of all this. This is Liverpool and Real Madrid that we’re talking about. These two clubs have won the European Cup or Champions League 19 times out of 66 between them. That’s more than a quarter of the total. Add in the six combined finals that they’ve also lost – although three have been against the other – and that means a third of the European Cup finals ever played have involved one or both of these two clubs. It’s difficult to argue that this isn’t the definitive Champions League final. They are, if such a thing exists, European football royalty. In the case of…
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