Champions League final: Records Real Madrid and Liverpool could script
Liverpool will be facing La Liga winners Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League 2021-22 final tonight. The Reds have reached their third final in five seasons. 13-time winners Real are aiming to win their maiden UCL trophy after having last won in 2017-18. They had beaten Liverpool 3-1 in that final. Ahead of the epic finale, we decode the records on offer.
Carabao Cup and FA Cup winners Liverpool finished second in the Premier League. This season, they have won a total of 49 matches in all competitions. With a win tonight, they can clock a milestone of 50 victories. Their previous best record was 43 wins in 2019-20. Liverpool have scored 147 goals this season and need three more to net a tally of 150.
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has reached his fourth Champions League final. He has the same number as Marcello Lippi and Sir Alex Ferguson. Only Real Madrid's Carlo Ancelotti has more. He will be making his fifth appearance tonight. If Klopp helps Liverpool win the trophy, Germany will be the first nation to have four managers winning successive UCL campaigns.
Ancelotti has won three Champions League titles to date. He won the coveted trophy twice with AC Milan in 2003 and 2007 respectively. With Real, he won in 2014. Ancelotti can now steer clear of Zinedine Zidane and Bob Paisley in terms of being the most successful manager. Zidane won three UCL honors with Real. Paisley guided Liverpool to three trophies as well.
Klopp won the trophy with Liverpool in 2018-19. In 2019-20, Bayern Munich won the trophy under German manager Hansi Flick. Chelsea won the 2020-21 trophy under Thomas Tuchel and now Klopp can continue the run of wins by a German manager.
Klopp can win his seventh trophy with Liverpool and a third this season. Ancelotti can also win his seventh trophy with Real and a third this season. He guided Real to La Liga and Spanish Super Cup wins already this season.
Karim Benzema has scored 86 Champions League goals and is tied with Robert Lewandowski. He can steer clear of Lewy and become the outright third-highest scorer in the competition after Cristiano Ronaldo (140) and Lionel Messi (125). Benzema can also get to 75 UCL goals for Real (74) and become the third player to score 75-plus goals for a single club.
Benzema has scored 15 goals this season in the UCL. He needs one more to equal the record of Cristiano, who scored 16 in 2015-16. If Benzema nets a hat-trick, he can surpass Cristiano's UCL record of 17 goals in a single edition (highest). Benzema can steer clear of Ronaldo for most goals in a single UCL knockout campaign (10).
Real have won 13 European Cup/Champions League trophies to date. They can extend their tally to 14. Liverpool have won six European Cup/Champions League honors and can equal the tally of AC Milan (7) if they win tonight.
