Forget about those t-shirts with the big No 13 on the front of them – there will be no complacency from Real Madrid going into the Champions League final.
It might have come across as arrogant when they put them on over their shirts no sooner had the final whistle blown against Bayern Munich. But the message was only ‘let’s go for the 13th’ and now they know for sure that it’s Liverpool, they know they have a game on their hands.
History, Jurgen Klopp and Mohamed Salah tell them as much.
Sergio Ramos and Real Madrid will not be underestimating Liverpool ahead of the Kiev final
The record books show that the last time Madrid lost a European Cup final it was against Liverpool. They also show that the last time they underestimated Liverpool they ended up looking very foolish.
In 2009 before the teams met in the last-16 of the Champions League, Real Madrid’s acting president Vicente Boluda used the Spanish phrase ‘les vamos a chorrear’ which can only really be translated as: ‘we are going to p*** on them’.
It was an unprecedented lack of diplomacy from shipping magnate Boluda who elaborated: ‘At home we will win 3-0. It will be a great game and at their place they will open up and we will win 2-1.’
Rafa Benitez was in charge of Liverpool and he masterminded a 5-0 aggregate win with a 1-0 victory at the Bernabeu and a stunning 4-0 win at Anfield. Boluda did not stay president for much longer.
Liverpool beat Madrid 5-0 over two legs when they met in the competition’s last-16 in 2009
Then-president Vicente Boluda was left red-faced after saying his side would ‘p*** on them’
Memories of those two games are still fresh. And in Thursday’s sports press there were also several pages dedicated to Madrid’s last European Cup final defeat.
The 12-times winners have beaten Juventus (twice), Valencia, Bayer Leverkusen and Atletico Madrid (twice) since. But in 1981 in Paris they lost to Alan Kennedy’s 81st minute winner.
That final at the Parc des Princes was a ridiculously cagey affair and no one in Spain expects anything remotely similar on May 26 in Kiev.
There is huge respect for Liverpool’s attacking style and for both it’s architect Klopp and it’s finest exponent, Salah.
Real goalkeeper Iker Casillas shows the strain after his side were brushed aside by Liverpool
Liverpool were the last team to beat Madrid in a European Cup final – winning 1-0 back in 1981
The Liverpool coach has been considered for the Madrid job before. When Carlo Ancelotti was sacked in 2015 he was the favourite among some of the club’s kingmakers. But there were fears he wanted a long-term project, or that that they would never be able to bring him to heel if he did take over.
And Salah is the dream signing for a club that is used to holding the world transfer record but has not broken it for five years when they signed Gareth Bale from Tottenham.
They know Salah will be priced out of their reach this summer. They saw how stubbornly they kept hold of Philippe Coutinho long enough to make sure he was cup-tied in Europe effectively ruining Barcelona’s Champions League campaign. And they will not meet the €200m asking price for anyone other than Neymar.
Madrid celebrated with No 13 t-shirts after beating Bayern Munich 4-3 in the semi-finals
Madrid know they will be priced out of signing Mohamed Salah from Liverpool in the summer
But that will not stop wall-to-wall speculation emanating from the Spanish capital as the clock counts down to the final.
Beyond Klopp and Salah, Liverpool are respected for what they did to Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City. Mane was the subject of a long and very positive El Pais interview last month and Roberto Firmino is recognized as the real brain of a devastating front three that will take some containing.
Of course, in spite of all that, they do see the European Cup as their competition. They believe they will win in Kiev, and as the Roma goals went in on Wednesday night that belief only became emboldened.
Jurgen Klopp has been considered for the Madrid job before – when Carlo Ancelotti left in 2015