Breaking Down the UCL Final Matchup
The 2018 Champions League Final is set, with Liverpool and Real Madrid ready to battle it out in Kiev at the end of the month for the highest honor in European club football.
Liverpool held off Roma in today’s semi-final second leg in Italy, advancing on an aggregate score of 7–6. Yesterday, Real Madrid narrowly avoided crashing out of the competition by salvaging a 2–2 draw with Bayern Munich at the Santiago Bernabeu. Los Blancos are looking to earn their third consecutive Champions League title, and a record 13th overall.
Liverpool will be looking to claim their sixth Champions League Final victory and first since the 2004/05 season.
While many in the football community are resigned to the idea of Real Madrid taking home the trophy once again, we’ve dug up some data that suggests this match will be anything but straightforward for the defending champions.
Over the course of the 2017/18 campaign, both Liverpool and Real Madrid have scored well over two goals per game while conceding about once on average according to WhoScored. A closer look reveals that Liverpool and Real Madrid share relatively similar attacking and defending statistics this year. See for yourself:
A notable difference here is Real Madrid’s advantage in scoring ability from set pieces, having notched 19 of their goals from these scenarios this season. This is certainly an area that the Spanish side can exploit, given that Liverpool has conceded nearly one-quarter of their goals from dead ball situations.
Also worthy of note is Liverpool’s threat on the counter. Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mané, and Roberto Firmino have scored 89 goals collectively this season. In this afternoon’s defeat to Roma, the trio became the highest-scoring group in a singular Champions League season by finding the back of the net 29 times, eclipsing the mark set by none other than Ronaldo, Benzema, and Bale four years ago.
With overwhelming firepower on both sides, there’s every reason to believe this final will be a wide open affair.
The match will also feature several key individual battles. Focusing on offensive preferences, Real Madrid relies on its left side for a whopping 41% of its attacks through Marcelo and Ronaldo, as shown below. To nullify Real’s wide threat, Liverpool will no doubt look to give 19-year-old right fullback Trent Alexander-Arnold additional cover from a defensive midfield three of James Milner, Jordan Henderson, and Georginio Wijnaldum.
Liverpool on the other hand pose more of a danger in all three channels. Real fullbacks Marcelo and Dani Carvajal must be highly selective of when they push up the pitch. Failure to do so will result in the Reds looking to play quickly in transition by finding their wide players.
The stats don’t lie. Real Madrid versus Liverpool is finely-balanced pairing that is sure to entertain.
Who do you have lifting the trophy this year?
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