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This will be the first time since 2013 when a Spanish has side failed to make it to the final of the Champions League. Liverpool and Tottenham take their place as this year's finalists. Yet, both the Champions League finalists faced crushing defeats in the first leg of their semi-finals.
The Reds were left without answers against a brilliant Leo Messi at the Camp Nou, whereas Tottenham were outclassed at home by Ajax's young guns. But Liverpool with the help of the Anfield support and their gegenpressing humiliated Barcelona 4-0 while a Lucas Moura inspired Tottenham defeated Ajax in what was one of the best European games of the season.
This meant that the fans are set to witness the first all-English Champions League final since 2008 when Manchester United defeated Chelsea in the penalty shootouts. Liverpool will start as the favourites but league form goes out of the window in a game of such magnitude.
Hence, we take a look at 5 groups of players who could decide the outcome of the Champions League final.
#5 The goalkeepers
When Liverpool lost last year's Champions League final to Real Madrid, one player was to bear the majority of the blame and that was their keeper Loris Karius. Liverpool immediately decided to shell out €70 million and signed Roma keeper Alisson Becker.
By the end of the season, he had won the Premier League's golden glove and was rated as one of the best keepers in England. On the other hand, Hugo Lloris, Tottenham's number one and captain came back from leading his national side to a World Cup win and was very much instrumental in Tottenham's bid to finish in the top 4 for the fourth year running.
Both the keepers played an important role in their teams run to the European final as well. Alisson made 3-4 important saves in the first half against Barcelona at Anfield, without whom the tie might have been over even before the end of the first half while Lloris made crucial saves against Tadic and Neres in the second half of the away leg against Ajax to ensure Tottenham remained in the tie till the dying stages of the game.
Despite their perfomances, both goalkeepers have certain weaknesses. Hugo Lloris is prone to lapses in concentration and has cost his team points throughout the different stages of the campaign while Alisson sometimes tends to overplay with the ball at his feet.
Well, no keeper in the world is perfect, and if any of the finalists wish to win the trophy, they will need their keepers to be in the form of their lives.
#4 Liverpool's fullbacks
If you ask anyone who is the world's best fullback duo, almost all of them will name the Liverpool duo of Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson. Such has been their consistency that both the players have been included in the Premier League's PFA team of the season.
This season, 23 of Liverpool's 89 Premier League goals were assisted by the duo. The fullbacks play an important role in Jurgen Klopp's system. While defending, his side usually set up in a 4-4-2 formation but convert into a 2-3-5 formation which is also known as the 'pyramid' during the attacking phase of play.
When the fullbacks have the ball in a crossing position, Liverpool always have three players in the opposition box with 2 of them looking to attack the 6-yard box and one holding their position at the edge of the box.
Hence, without their fullbacks, Liverpool's attack would be totally subdued. This also means that the Reds are vulnerable to counter-attacks during transitional play. While Robertson has shown a knack to cover large distances and make goal-saving tackles, Trent has the tendency for being a tad lazy to track back and defend.
Hence, Liverpool's fullbacks ability to attack and defend in important stages of the final will be very crucial if the club dream of winning their 6th European title.
#3 Tottenham's central midfielders
In Tottenham's unfortunate 2-1 loss to Liverpool in March, Tottenham couldn't deal with the attacking threat of the Liverpool fullbacks. This was mainly due to Tottenham playing a 3-5-2 where they had no direct opponents for Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson.
Spurs were more concerned with Salah and Mane and concentrated more on their runs leaving no one to mark the Liverpool fullbacks. The first goal of the game came from a Robertson cross which was headed home by Firmino.
Realizing his mistake, Pochettino changed his team's shape to a 4-4-1 with the wide midfielders marking the fullbacks and the central midfielders marking the free Firmino. This finally gave a foothold to Tottenham in the game and stopped Liverpool from scoring more goals.
Hence, if Spurs want to win this final, they will need to stop Firmino from dropping between the lines by man-marking him. The onus of this work will clearly be on Tottenham's central midfielders. By doing this they could make Liverpool's attack one-dimensional with their attacks only emanating from wide areas.
#2 Tottenham's attacking midfielders
If you try to find any weakness in this Liverpool defence, you will be left scratching your heads. Alisson has been like a wall that can't be broken, while Virgil van Dijk has seen zero men dribble past him.
But if one observes closely, we will find that Liverpool has struggled to deal with the third man run. A third man is one who can sometimes start the passing sequence, or on the contrary, he is on the blind side of the play and not involved at all when the run starts.
Manchester City's first goal against Liverpool by Aguero or Hazard's goal in the League game are prime examples. Tottenham have Dele Alli and Christian Eriksen as two of the world's top attacking midfielders. Both of them have the ability to beat their main and cause huge problems for Liverpool's defence.
The full-back pairing of Danny Rose and Kieran Trippier can stretch the play in wide areas and with Liverpool's fullbacks struggling to cover their ground every time for 90 minutes, there will be times where the Liverpool defenders or the midfielders would have to cover for their fullbacks leaving wide spaces in the middle of the park. Anyone of Alli or Eriksen could start the play while the other makes runs in the final third thus creating player superiority.
This would definitely lead to great opportunities for Tottenham to score goals and with their defensive midfielders blocking off Liverpool's attack, the club from Merseyside could be in huge trouble.
#1 Liverpool's front three
Liverpool's attacking trio of Salah, Firmino, and Mane is probably the best in world football since Barcelona's famed MSN. What makes them so special is that they work with such cohesion that it virtually makes it impossible to stop them.
Last season, Firmino and Mane both took the back seat while Mo Salah was given the license to go on an all-out attack. But the 2-time Premier League Golden Boot winner started getting marked heavily and had a drop in his goal-scoring exploits this season.
As a result, Mane took on the responsibility of sharing the goal scoring burden this season while Firmino played as a false-nine. This meant that whenever Salah got the ball he would run at the defence and with two or more defenders attracted to the Egyptian, this would open up space on the opposite flank for Mane to attack into.
The Senegalese generally starts out on the left-hand side and then makes diagonal runs inside (his chip goal against Bayern in the Champions League is the prime example) while Firmino's link-up play means its really hard to get the ball off him. This fluid nature of their attacks makes it virtually impossible for the opposition to stop Liverpool once the front-three get on the ball.
Hence, it would be an interesting battle as Tottenham's defensive midfielder will have to try to cut off the supply to Liverpool's front three and then start attacks of their own. Also, if Tottenham decides to go with a 4-4-1-1 formation it could strangle the Liverpool fullbacks to supply the crosses. So the match will totally be decided on the basis of which team controls their emotions better and not on individual players quality.
