‘From Madrid to the Sky’: Spanish papers get revved up for Champions League showpiece between Liverpool and Tottenham as Real Madrid prepare to let go of trophy they’ve had under lock and key for 1,099 days
- Madrid hosting the Champions League final between Liverpool and Tottenham
- Atletico’s Wanda Metropolitano stadium will host showpiece on Saturday night
- Around 100,000 fans of the two clubs have descended on the Spanish capital
- The Madrid sports dailies have embraced the occasion with colourful covers
- ‘From Madrid to the Sky’ is the headline, a play on an old proverb about the city
Madrid is preparing to host the showpiece of the European football season as Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur meet in the Champions League final.
And the Spanish newspapers are clearly revved up for Saturday night’s all-English affair at Atletico Madrid’s magnificent Wanda Metropolitano stadium.
Saturday’s edition of Marca features an eye-catching wraparound cover of the stadium, plus the iconic Champions League trophy and the two managers – Jurgen Klopp and Mauricio Pochettino.
Spanish sports daily Marca have a wraparound cover on Saturday featuring the Wanda Metropolitano stadium that will host the Champions League final
AS have a montage of the thousands of Liverpool and Tottenham fans in Madrid on their cover
A giant replica of the Champions League trophy outside the royal palace in Madrid
‘From Madrid to the sky’ runs their headline – in English – as the world prepares for what is only the second all-English Champions League final.
They say that after 1,099 days, Real Madrid are set to surrender their European crown as Liverpool aim to lift the trophy for the sixth time and Spurs the first.
There is a distinctly English flavour in Madrid this weekend as around 100,000 supporters of both clubs flock to the sunny Spanish capital.
With each club allocated just 17,000 tickets in a stadium that holds 67,829, the vast ticketless majority will be watching the game in bars across the city.
AS feature a photo montage of the fans on their front page and have the same headline: ‘From Madrid to the sky’.
It’s a variation on a phrase often associated with Madrid – ‘De Madrid al Cielo’ or ‘From Madrid to Heaven’.
The final also features on the front cover of the French sports newspaper L’Equipe
Atletico Madrid’s stunning Wanda Metropolitano stadium is set to host the showpiece final
The Liverpool squad train at the Wanda Metropolitano stadium on the eve of the final
Tottenham train inside the stadium on Friday night ahead of their biggest ever occasion
The proverb is usually used to celebrate the fact Madrid is a lively and charming city, where you can thoroughly enjoy yourself.
Its origins aren’t exactly known but it is was a common expression during the late 18th-century when King Carlos III made aesthetically-pleasing improvements to his villa in the city.
However, one other possible meaning comes from the days when Madrid didn’t have running water or sewage and inhabitants claimed the only thing worth looking at was the sky.
The final makes headlines elsewhere in Europe, including on the front cover of the French sports daily L’Equipe, whose headline ‘The Premier League of Champions’ reflects the English dominance of this season’s competition.
Fans of Liverpool and Tottenham have been arriving in the Spanish capital all week
Around 100,000 fans of the two Premier League clubs are expected for the final
With the event very much a Madrid affair, the Barcelona sports press seem to be pretending it isn’t happening.
The front cover of Saturday’s Mundo Deportivo pictures Lionel Messi alongside Neymar and Antoine Greizmann with the headline ‘Barcelona: Why Not?’
The paper suggests that Barcelona could attempt to bring Neymar back to the club from Paris Saint-Germain as well as moving for Atletico’s Griezmann.
There was barely a mention of the Champions League final on Mundo Deportivo’s cover