PREVIEW:
Real Madrid faces Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League final at Wembley Stadium on Saturday with Carlo Ancelotti’s side seeking to add another chapter to the club’s already astonishing love affair with European football’s elite trophy.
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Bidding for a record-extending 15th European Cup and sixth in 10 years, Madrid wants to emulate Real’s dominance at the dawn of the competition when, during the Alfredo Di Stefano years, they won the first five editions from 1956 and another in 1966.
But after the group of Di Stefano, Ferenc Puskas, Paco Gento and Raymond Kopa established Real as ‘The Kings of Europe’, it took the club 32 painful years to reclaim its throne in 1998.
Rivals often joked about Real’s European Cups all being won in black and white, but the generation of Raul, Fernando Hierro and Roberto Carlos helped Real flourish again in full colour broadcasts when they won three Champion Leagues in five seasons.
But there were then another 12 fallow years, making Real’s quest for ‘The 10th’ an obsession for president Florentino Perez, who failed spectacularly to achieve it via his multimillion dollar ‘Galacticos’ approach.
PREDICTED LINEUPS
Dortmund: Kobel; Ryerson, Hummels, Schlotterbeck, Maatsen; Can, Sabitzer; Sancho, Brandt, Adeyemi; Fullkrug.
Real Madrid: Courtois; Carvajal, Rudiger, Nacho, Mendy; Camavinga, Kroos, Valverde; Bellingham; Rodrygo, Vinicius.
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