Real Madrid face Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League final at Wembley Stadium tonight.
Los Blancos can win a 15th European crown, following a dramatic semi-final win over Bayern Munich, while BVB are bidding to win a second title on arguably the biggest stage in club football after upsetting Kylian Mbappe and PSG in the final four.
Vinicius Jr and Jude Bellingham are among the candidates for this year’s Ballon d’Or, knowing a win here paired with a fine performance could tip the balance their way ahead of Euro 2024 and the Copa America this summer.
While both teams have harnessed variety in their path to the final, relying on, at times, traditional No 9s in the shape of Joselu and Niclas Fullkrug.
In the dugout, Carlo Ancelotti can claim a fifth Champions League as a coach, with Edin Terzić looking to complete a famous journey from the Yellow Wall to the very top of European football with his boyhood club. Follow all the build-up, team news and latest updates from Wembley below:
Real Madrid v Dortmund: England ace Jude ready to star for Real
Jude Bellingham has enjoyed a fine first campaign at Real Madrid having joined from Dortmund last summer and will be aiming to top it off with victory over his former club.
The 20-year-old asked for Zinedine Zidane’s old number five shirt when he completed his move and he has certainly started to live up to the lofty expectations that come with such a request.
With 23 goals and 12 assists over the course of the campaign to date, the England midfielder could be key to Real lifting an unrivalled 15th European Cup.
Nacho on Real Madrid future post-Champions League final
“My place in the Real Madrid team? I always start as one of the last in line, but thanks to my effort and my work I manage to turn the situation around,” he said. “In the end every year I am important in the team.
“My future? I have decided what I am going to do when the season ends, but I am not going to say it now, it is not the day, it is not the moment. Nothing that happens is going to change my decision, even if we win the Champions League or the European Championship.”
Antonio Rudiger on Toni Kroos ahead of Real Madrid midfielder’s retirement
“I knew him [Kroos] from the national team, but we had not been that close” Antonio Rudiger said. “And I’m going to be honest here, I had a different perception about him, but when I got here I met the real Toni Kroos.
“A great guy who loves his family, and since I am also a father it makes me respect him a lot. I look at him and see a great role model because I have not seen the way he loves and treats his family in any other footballer.
“I don’t need to talk about the footballer because in Germany he is the best we have had, without a doubt, and he is a Real Madrid legend, but as a person he is simply fantastic.”
Champions League final – Real Madrid and Dortmund fans gather in London
Vinicius Jr can win two trophies in one Champions League final – the Ballon d’Or awaits
The description many another would apply to Jude Bellingham is one he bestows upon a teammate. “The best in the world,” he said of Vinicius Jr in May. And October. Carlo Ancelotti agrees; as the Italian is the diplomat supreme, it was unlikely to cause ructions in the Real Madrid dressing room when he nominated the winger, even though he overlooked Bellingham in the process.
And if the Brazilian could prove a more controversial choice again next season, when Kylian Mbappe will surely be added to the list of Real’s candidates, for now Vinicius is the 21st-century boy who could finally deliver the Ballon d’Or to the next generation.
Which, as the last 15 have been won by players born in either 1985 (in Cristiano Ronaldo and Luka Modric) or 1987 (Lionel Messi and Karim Benzema), would represent a changing of the guard. And if Vinicius is not the eventual winner, it may be because Euro 2024 allows someone else – potentially Mbappe or Bellingham – to seize the limelight, though Brazil have their own summer tournament at the Copa America.
Is Borussia Dortmund vs Real Madrid on TV?
The official end of the season for Europe’s elite comes on Saturday with the Uefa Champions League final, contested this year between Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid.
While the German giants certainly have pedigree and one European Cup to their name from 1997, it’s Los Blancos who are the behemoths, true royalty of the game as far as wins in this tournament go – they are the record holders with 14 titles, 17 finals overall and five wins since Dortmund’s last final, which was in 2013.
Coincidentally, that one was at Wembley too – they were beaten by Bayern Munich on that occasion, with Real Madrid in turn knocking out Bayern in this semis this year.
Real Madrid have fashioned a world to suit themselves – but is it harming the rest of football?
Florentino Perez couldn’t have it any other way. On Monday, after a Spanish court gave the latest ruling on the Super League case, those in the Real Madrid president’s circle were very quick to insist to everyone that the judgment actually represented a victory for the project. This was despite virtually every legal expert considering the outcome meaningless.
Uefa currently sees no real threat from this iteration of the Super League. You just wouldn’t have guessed that from the response in Spain, where it was roundly portrayed as yet another victory for Perez. This is what he has become used to, his ambitions almost willed into existence.
You only have to look at European football’s current landscape, one that now looks set to be dominated by Real Madrid for a decade. It makes it all the more of a wonder why Perez is seeking to destroy it through the Super League.
This Saturday, Madrid expect to win their 15th Champions League. That would be more than double AC Milan’s seven, the next most successful club, who have been left for dust by the greater winds of football history.
Source: independent.co.uk
