Champions League Final Preview: Player fatigue concerns hang over Liverpool-Real Madrid summit clash

by

For a player who does not consider himself a striker, Mohamed Salah is the envy of many strikers with his scoring record with Liverpool.

Salah said: “I do not play number 9, I play in the center of the wing.” “It’s completely different when you play as a winger.”

However, Al Masry enters the Champions League final on Saturday with 31 goals in 50 matches this season and as the leading striker in English football.

A great return for goals, but lost the real number 9, which Real Madrid will resort to to score goals at the Stade de France. Karim Benzema’s total score reached 44 goals, which he achieved in only 45 matches with clubs.

The best of Express Premium

canceled excellent
The directives of the Supreme Committee regarding sex workers: the history of the case and where it has arrived nowexcellent
Cruz drug raid case: One rogue officer, and the agency looked the other wayexcellent
Hindus and Muslims must abandon hard-line positions on disputed places in the world...excellent

Maybe a little could be more.

The peak of the European club season can be determined by who is least stressed after a two-year period of coronavirus-affected schedules with few breaks.

Concern about the players’ workload has reached such a point that, with the teams arriving in Paris, members of the World Players Association were meeting in the French capital on Thursday to discuss the fatigue of the biggest stars.

“It’s clearly the time of year when the players are really focused on winning,” said FIFPro general secretary Jonas Baer-Hoffmann. “I am sure they will get all their energy to play a good game on Saturday but they will pay for it in the end. It is really worrying for us at the moment, the risk of injury now, but also in the long run.”

Benzema, 34, five years behind Salah, has only been out on the pitch 52 times since last August with Real Madrid and France.

Adding to their journey to the Africa Cup of Nations in January, Salah and Senegal’s Sadio Mane are gearing up for their 70 matches this season.

Liverpool have played every possible match this season and everyone has something on the line. The Premier League went down – with Manchester City winning the title by one point on Sunday – and Liverpool winning the FA Cup last weekend and the League Cup in February.

Real Madrid had the luxury of winning La Liga with four games to spare a month ago. Carlo Ancelotti’s hopes of winning the domestic cup ended with a quarter-final loss in the Copa del Rey in February.

“I don’t think we’re going to struggle. We’ve had a whole week of preparations,” said Liverpool defender Andy Robertson. “They had a bit more relaxed preparation. They finished the league… and were able to relax and not play many matches at the highest tempo. We wanted to fight for everything and knew what it would do to our bodies.”

Jurgen Klopp is still chasing a hat-trick with Liverpool. Publicly, at least, Ancelotti is not talking about trying to exploit any stress in the Liverpool squad.

“If we are talking about a physical perspective, we are playing against a team that is among the best in the world in this regard,” Ancelotti said. “Add to that awesome individual quality, strong attacking and good organization. I don’t think the physical side of things will determine the outcome, it will be important but there are a lot of other elements to evaluate.”

Like the strength of the recovery in Madrid.

The European champion, the record holder 13 times, faced elimination in the round of 16 before two of Benzema’s 15 continental goals this season changed the game against Paris Saint-Germain. It took 10 minutes before he went against Chelsea to stay in the quarter-finals before the defending champions were sent off in overtime. Real Madrid entered the 90th minute against Manchester City, heading to the semi-finals, until Rodrygo returned as a savior again with two goals crowned with another great return.

It makes Liverpool’s path through the knockout stage after Inter Milan, Benfica and Villarreal look relatively smooth to set up a meeting with Real Madrid after the defeat in the 2018 final.

That was a match when Salah was forced to flee in the first half. While still at the peak of his scoring ability, what happened to the man of the match in Kyiv?

Gareth Bale’s goals won Real Madrid’s last European Cup with two unforgettable goals, but his chances of playing on Saturday are slim. The striker is one player who can only get frustrated with his limited playing time rather than the increased workload over the past season. The world’s most expensive player When he signed for Real Madrid in 2013, Bale played only 13 times this season – six of them for Wales – after being left out as his contract with Real Madrid expired.

For the third year in a row, UEFA had to change the location of the final. Not this time because of the pandemic but the Russian invasion of Ukraine which saw Saint Petersburg stripped of hosting.

It’s Liverpool’s return to Paris as they beat Madrid in the 1981 final when it was just the European Cup.

The two teams meet again at the end of the 30th Champions League season – a competition Real Madrid sought to destroy a year ago by splitting to form the Super League.

Liverpool were quick to undo the rebellion, while Real Madrid still cling to the dream of seceding from UEFA.

It could lead to awkward conversations when Madrid president Florentino Perez and his UEFA counterpart Aleksander Ceferin meet on the field.

However, the conversation many stars are hoping for is about relieving the players. Even when these players try to crown the season by lifting another trophy.

Leave a Comment