David vs. Goliath In The Champions League Final
After 2 semifinal Round 2 legs that were considerably less straightforward than anticipated, we have the Final in the Champions League that we expected after the first leg: holders Real Madrid and upstarts Liverpool.
On Tuesday, Real Madrid played a weakened Bayern Munich side at home in Madrid, holding a 2-1 lead. With home-field advantage and 2 away goals in hand, it was a lead that appeared insurmountable, but Munich, to their credit, made the proceedings extremely interesting. Joshua Kimmich again opened the scoring within minutes, stunning the crowd at the Bernebeau. Though Karim Benzema put in 2 goals to give Real yet another 2-1 lead, James Rodriguez' equalizer 25 minutes from time made for an extremely fraught finish, as one more Bayern goal would have seen them through to the final on away-goal aggregate. On multiple occasions, too, they almost got that evasive goal, with several good looks at Keylor Navas' net, but ultimately, sloppy mistakes from the Bayern back line proved to be the difference over the two legs.
It's been the story of Real in this tournament run, and really, under Zinedine Zidane's tenure: they just find ways to win. Two years ago, Real benefitted from a ridiculously easy path to the Champions League final, where they required dubious officiating and a missed penalty to fell crosstown rivals Atlético Madrid. Last year, they essentially just obliterated every opponent in their path, exemplified by a 4-1 romp against Juventus in the final. This year, they've reached the final by, really, just making less mistakes than their opponents. Paris Saint-Germain in the Round of 16, Juventus in the Quarterfinals, and now Bayern in the Semifinals (the champions, it should be noted, of France, Italy, and Germany, respectively), all gifted Real more than one goal with mindless sloppy play in the midfield and defense, and especially in the case of the latter two teams, that proved to be the margin between Real and the field. And here they are, in the final again, as the favorites to capture a 3rd consecutive Champions League title.
Standing in their way will be the first English team to play in the Champions League Final since 2012, underdogs Liverpool, who had a roller-coaster semifinal of their own. Having obliterated everyone in their path thus far, Liverpool looked as good as in Kiev last week, holding a 5-0 lead over Roma at home. However, after conceding two late away goals in that first leg and losing midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain for the season, many voices began to assert that Roma would repeat their miracle comeback against Barca in the quarterfinals, this time at the Reds' expense. On Wednesday, early goals from Sadio Mané and Georginio Wijnaldum seemed to close the door once and for all. Yet, even standing at a 7-3 aggregate at halftime, the place still was not to be sealed, as Roma pelted in 3 second-half goals (the last coming just seconds before the final whistle, but still) against an obviously exhausted Liverpool side, leading to a nervy finish for all, before the whistle mercifully blew and put Liverpool in the final by a 1-goal aggregate margin.
Liverpool has had one of the wilder rides to the Champions League Final. Finishing 4th place in England the year prior (and likely this year, too), they were required to complete a play-in round before even entering the group stages. From there, they ran rampant, never losing a match and outscoring their opponents 33-7 until the back-and-forth affair with Roma.
As dominant as they've been in this tournament, Liverpool are an extremely unlikely participant in this Championship as we've seen since...well, since Chelsea, the aforementioned 2012 English participant. Detractors will point to the relatively easy path the Reds had to the final: the only sides from major league they faced were Manchester City, whose style Klopp and Liverpool were extremely familiar with, and Roma, who is struggling to just reach the Champions League again next year. Still, for a club that hasn't been to the knockout stages of this tournament in a decade, and a team that needed a win on the last matchday of last season just to qualify for the tournament, and come through the play-in stages, their run to this point is a different sort of impressive from Real's, to be sure, but objectively impressive all the same.
I'll save a bona fide predictive piece for a time closer to the match itself, but this will be a fascinating matchup, in what is the most clear-cut David vs. Goliath tale we've had in this cup final in a very long time.