[ad_1]
PARIS: Liverpool midfielders Fabinho and Thiago Alcantara have recovered from injury and will face Real Madrid in Saturday’s Champions League final.
Thiago was substituted off in the first half of Sunday’s final Premier League game against Wolverhampton Wanderers with a muscle problem and Fabinho has not played since limping away with a hamstring problem in the win at Aston Villa on May 10.
Ibrahima Konate will start alongside Virgil van Dijk in defence.
Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti, who plays Karim Benzema and Vinicius Jr up front, has defender David Alaba back in the team after the Austrian missed Real’s last six games with a muscle injury in the first leg of the Champions League semi-final against Manchester City in late April.
The 62-year-old Italian, who will make history on Saturday by becoming the first to win five Champions League finals and the first to win four, stuck with Uruguay midfielder Federico Valverde rather than Rodrygo.
The Brazilian striker will be on the bench as Real’s substitutes were so effective during their amazing comebacks against Paris St Germain, Chelsea and Manchester City.
The game will be played at the Stade de France after UEFA moved it from St Petersburg to Paris following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow has dubbed a “special operation”.
Far more Liverpool fans turned up than Real Madrid fans and could be seen more than three hours before kick-off on a sun-drenched Cours de Vincennes, one of Paris’s busiest streets, which was packed with around 50,000 Reds supporters.
According to the police, no serious incidents were recorded before the game after they announced several security measures, including the ban on access to the Champs Elysees area for Spanish and English fans until Sunday afternoon.
Real Madrid are aiming to win their fifth Champions League title in nine years and extend their record European tally to 14 trophies.
Liverpool have reached their third final in five years and are aiming for a seventh European Cup win that would draw them level with AC Milan in second place behind Real.
teams:
Liverpool: 1-Alisson Becker; 66-Trent Alexander-Arnold, 4-Virgil van Dijk, 5-Ibrahima Konate, 26-Andrew Robertson; 3-Fabinho, 6-Thiago Alcantara, 14-Jordan Henderson; 11-Mohamed Salah, 23-Luis Diaz, 10-Sadio Mane
Real Madrid: 1-Thibaut Courtois; 2-Dani Carvajal, 3-Eder Militao, 4-David Alaba, 23-Ferland Mendy; 14-Casemiro, 8-Toni Kroos, 10-Luka Modric; 15 – Federico Valverde, 20 – Vinicius Jr., 9 – Karim Benzema
[ad_2]
Read Also :