The Champions League final between Liverpool and Real Madrid on May 26 is a mouth-watering prospect for many reasons but not least because it brings two of world football’s most in-form players into direct competition.
Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah and Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo have been making the headlines and setting new standards all season and now they’ll fight it out for the greatest prize in European club football.
We take a look at the very impressive numbers behind these two superstars.
The Champions League final will pit Mohamed Salah (left) against Cristiano Ronaldo (right)
NUMBER OF APPEARANCES
It’s been a hectic campaign for both players, with their clubs so heavily reliant on their moments of magic to prosper in the various competitions they participate in.
Therefore, Salah has already made 49 appearances for Liverpool and Ronaldo has played in 41 games for Real Madrid this season.
Salah has been one of the first names on Jurgen Klopp’s teamsheet since arriving from Roma last summer and has only missed two Premier League fixtures, starting 32 of the 36 games they have played.
He has started all but one of Liverpool’s matches in the Champions League and the one he began on the bench was the second leg of their last-16 tie with Porto, when Liverpool already led 5-0 from the away game.
Salah controls the ball during Liverpool’s Champions League semi-final, second leg with Roma
Ronaldo, who at 33 is eight years Salah’s senior, has played less because he started the season with a five-match suspension for being sent off in the Spanish Super Cup against Barcelona.
As the season has progressed and it became increasingly apparent Barcelona were going to run away with the La Liga title, Zinedine Zidane has strategically rested Ronaldo in certain league games to keep him fresh for Europe.
Therefore, since the resumption of the Champions League in February, he has not been picked in the Real squad for five league fixtures. He also doesn’t have to bother with the Copa del Rey.
Real’s obsession with triumph on the European stage is underlined by the fact Ronaldo has started all 12 of their Champions League games this season – he is a true specialist on that stage.
Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates with Gareth Bale as Real booked their place in another final
NUMBER OF GOALS
Both men have enjoyed exceptional scoring seasons in all competitions. When added together, Salah has scored 43 goals in his 49 matches and Ronaldo has netted 42 goals in his 41 games.
Nobody expected Salah to have such a sensational impact – he struggled to make an impression in the Premier League when at Chelsea and his two full seasons with Roma yielded returns of 15 and 19 goals.
But the way he has fitted seamlessly into Jurgen Klopp’s well-oiled attack has taken the breath away and the goals have flowed at all points in the season.
Salah started the Premier League campaign by scoring at Watford and hasn’t looked back. The 31 in the league have put him four goals clear of Tottenham’s Harry Kane in the race for the Golden Boot.
The Egyptian has scored 10 goals in 12 Champions League matches, or 11 in 14 if you include the two legs of the play-off round against Hoffenheim. He also scored against West Bromwich Albion in the FA Cup.
Salah has enjoyed a sensational season, scoring 43 goals in 49 appearances for the Reds
Of Ronaldo’s 42 goals, 24 have come in La Liga though he trails his great rival, Lionel Messi of Barcelona, by eight in the current top scorer charts.
In Europe, he continues to excel, with a superb 15 goals in 12 outings this season. Indeed, up until the two legs of the semi-final against Bayern Munich, Ronaldo has scored in every single match.
In addition, the Portuguese netted in the first leg of the Spanish Super Cup final with Barcelona (prior to his sending off) and also got two in the FIFA Club World Cup staged in Abu Dhabi back in December.
Though Ronaldo has already matched the 42 goals he scored last season, his final return will be down on the seasons before that.
Ronaldo celebrates after scoring the decisive penalty to see Real Madrid past Juventus
ASSISTS
Of course, it isn’t all about finding the net. Both Salah and Ronaldo have contributed an impressive number of assists for their team-mates this season.
Salah has 13 in total, with nine coming in the Premier League and four in Europe.
Ronaldo has five in La Liga and two more in the Champions League.
DOUBLES, TREBLES AND QUADRUPLES
Both Salah and Ronaldo are players who love to steal the show and usually do so by scoring two or three goals in the same match.
This season, the Liverpool man has scored twice on seven separate occasions. In the Premier League, these doubles have come against West Ham, Southampton, Stoke City, Leicester City and Tottenham.
And in the Champions League, Salah netted twice in the 7-0 group stage thrashing of Maribor and against Roma in the first leg of the semi-final.
But his most sparkling afternoon in front of goal came in the 5-0 win over Watford back in March, when he scored four times in an unstoppable performance.
Salah, seen scoring here against Maribor, has propelled Liverpool’s European hopes
As we well know, when Ronaldo is in the scoring mood, he is really in the scoring mood. He has 11 two-goal hauls, one hat-trick and one quadruple this season.
Those doubles in La Liga have come against Sevilla, Deportivo La Coruna, Valencia, Alaves, Getafe and Eibar.
In the Champions League, Ronaldo has netted twice in the matches against APOEL Nicosia, both home and away, Borussia Dortmund, Paris Saint-Germain and Juventus.
That aforementioned hat-trick came in a 5-2 league win over Real Sociedad and the quadruple came in a 6-3 victory over Girona.
Ronaldo’s sensational overhead kick goal in the first leg of the quarter-final with Juventus
SCORING STREAKS
Both players have been on hot scoring streaks this season – Salah has twice been on a sequence of seven consecutive scoring games.
The first was from the FA Cup fourth round tie with West Brom on January 27 until the league match with Newcastle United on March 3, including goals against Huddersfield, Tottenham, Southampton, Porto and West Ham in between.
Those four goals against Watford sparked another seven-match scoring run that included games with Crystal Palace, Manchester City (home and away in the Champions League), Bournemouth, West Brom and Roma.
Remarkably, Salah’s longest run without managing to find the net is just three games – against Spartak Moscow, Newcastle United and Manchester United back in September and October.
Salah has scored in seven consecutive matches twice during the course of the season
Ronaldo went better, however, with a stunning 12-match scoring streak between February and April.
Beginning with the hat-trick he scored against Sociedad on February 10, Ronaldo went on to score 22 times in those dozen games.
They included both legs of the Champions League ties against PSG and Juventus, plus eight league fixtures.
Like Salah, his longest non-scoring run stands at three games – against Barcelona, Celta Vigo and Villarreal back in December and January.
So as we have seen, neither player is kept quiet for too long.
Ronaldo scores against Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League back in September