A meeting between two real European heavyweights. Thirteen-time winners Real Madrid against six-time champions Liverpool in the UEFA Champions League final at the Stade de France in Paris.

Real Madrid, coached by Carlo Ancelotti, are the newly crowned Spanish league champions and have had an excellent recent record against the English side. They knocked Liverpool out at the quarter-final stage last season and beat them in the final in Kyiv in 2018.
 

Perfect preparations
With Real Madrid wrapping up league title number 35 back on April 30, Ancelotti has been able to rest and rotate most of his first-team ahead of Saturday's final. What's more, the Spanish side's two key players are 34-year-old Karim Benzema, the champions league's top scorer this season and 36-year-old Luca Modric, and that rest could prove to be invaluable after what has been a punishing season.

French Striker Benzema has 15 goals so far in this campaign, and his form, plus that of midfielder Modric has helped the 13-time winners see off last year's winners Chelsea, the champions of France Paris Saint-Germain the champions of England, Manchester City.

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Real Madrid's goalkeeper is Thibaut Courtois. The Belgian stopper admitted it had been a long hard season but the squad couldn't wait for Saturday's clash in Paris.

"We're really excited and motivated every day," said Courtois. "That's normal. We're really looking forward to playing the final. We are now training with real intensity. You can see just how focused our squad is.

Our preparations have been intense and that's really important at this stage. It's great to see everyone in good shape, so we can all train together as a team. It's important to maintain this right through until the final."

Unfinished business for Liverpool
Like Real Madrid, this has been a season to remember for Premier League side Liverpool, although unlike Real they just missed out on the league, losing the title by a single point to Manchester City. But a win on Saturday would give manager Jurgen Klopp's team a third trophy of 2022, having already picked up the English League Cup and FA Cup.

Reds forward Sadio Mane, already an Africa Cup of Nations winner this year with Senegal, said he and the team were hungry for more trophies.

"You have the big dream and I am one of the players who has the big dream because playing in the Champions league is special and we need to be even more special, so we have the squad to do it," said Mane. "And I'm sure we're going to do everything possible to go for it."

Much of this Liverpool squad were in the team that lost to Real Madrid in the 2018 final and last year's quarter-finals, so there is a sense that the club has some unfinished business to attend to. While their recent record against Real Madrid is not good, they and the estimated 50,000 Liverpool fans expected to be in Paris, will all be hoping the previous clash with Real in the French capital will prove to be a better omen.

The game was the 1981 European Cup final, Liverpool beating Real Madrid one-nil.