Full English! Liverpool v Spurs and five more same nation finals
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There’ve only been six finals featuring teams from the same nation in the 64-year history of the Champions League and European Cup. You can add Tottenham Hotspur v Liverpool to that list on Saturday evening.
The PremierLeague pair face-off in Madrid for what should be a memorable showpiece. Wemake the Reds the odds-on favourites at 10/11, against 29/10 for Spurs. But what can we learn from past same nation finals?
We’ve lookedback on five of the most recent examples, starting with a Madrid derby…
Real Madrid 1-1 Atletico Madrid – 2015-16
This victorydidn’t just break the hearts of Real’s local rivals for the second time inthree years. It also delivered LosBlancos a record 11th Champions League title and set them on their way to ahistoric hat-trick of wins.
Sergio Ramos – who we’ll come onto again later –put Real ahead before Yannick Carrasco sentthe tie into extra time. A goalless 30 minutes then followed which meant apenalty shoot-out in Milan.
The firstseven players all scored only for Juanfranto miss the crucial eighth kick for Atletico by hitting the post. Cristiano Ronaldo made no mistake tohand Zinedine Zidane’s men a 5-3 winon spot-kicks.
Real Madrid 4-1 Atletico Madrid – 2013-14
Certainfinals are synonymous with certain players. While Gareth Bale may have given Real the lead in extra time during the2013-14 final, this match really belonged to legendary centre-half Ramos.
With Carlo Ancelotti’s men trailing ininjury time through Diego Godin’s first-halfgoal, Ramos popped up in the third minute of time added on to break Diego Simeone and Atletico’s hearts.
A final inwhich Los Rojiblancos should have hadwrapped up was then turned on its head as Bale,Marcelo and a Ronaldo penalty sealed a 4-1 win in extra time.
Bayern Munich 2-1 Borussia Dortmund – 2012-13
The onlyall-German final on this list had an awesome atmosphere and a titanic ending toboot. Ilkay Gundogan cancelled out Mario Mandzukic’s opener and the matchlooked to be heading to extra time.
No-one told Arjen Robben. The Dutchman latched onto a knockdown before stumbling through the Dortmund defence and slotting past Roman Weidenfeller for Bayern’s first CL tournament win since 2001.
Manchester United 1-1 Chelsea – 2007-08
Can youbelieve the last full English affair in the Champions League final was 11 yearsago? We can’t. And we reckon John Terry is still trying to forget it even ifhis Aston Villa side did win at Wembley over the weekend.
The Chelsealegend missed a crucial spot-kick in the driving rain after Frank Lampard’sequaliser cancelled out Ronaldo’s opener. Anelka also missed in the shootout toallow Ryan Giggs to seal another United triumph.
AC Milan 0-0 Juventus – 2002-03
SomeChampions League finals live long in the memory. Others don’t. This 0-0borefest at Old Trafford falls firmly in the latter category. Nothing couldseparate the two Italian giants in 120 minutes of football.
And after David Trezeguet, Marcelo Zalayeta and PaoloMontero all missed for Juve in the shoot-out, it was down to Andriy Shevchenko to slot home thewinning spot-kick for AC. The rest, as they say, is history – thank God.
All odds and markets correct as of date of publication
