Real Madrid, sacred monster of the Champions League, advances with its myriad of stars towards the Wembley final on Saturday (9:00 p.m.) as the ultra-favorite. The Spaniards will face Borussia Dortmund, an outsider with a smaller budget, supported by a collective and the sweet “dream” of achieving the unthinkable.
The queen of European competitions will therefore deliver her epilogue in London. The track record, dynamics, squad and budget will lean in favor of Real Madrid, the most successful club in history with fourteen coronations, including five won in the last ten years.
The “White House”, populated by young talents (Jude Bellingham, Rodrygo, Vinicius…) and experienced veterans (Nacho, Toni Kroos, Luka Modric…), intends to return to the throne at the end of a season almost perfect, dotted with only two defeats in 54 matches. Carlo Ancelotti’s Real is never as strong as when the anthem of the Champions League sounds, its favorite competition, that of its most resounding strokes of brilliance.
To reach London, the Madrilenians equalized twice against Manchester City (3-3) in the quarter-final first leg, kept their nerves strong on the return leg (1-1, 4-3 tab) to take out the defending champion in the quarter-final . Then, they held Bayern to a draw in Munich (2-2) then overthrew the Germans on the return leg (2-1) with two very late goals.
Mission and dream
Despite this, Dortmund and their Swiss goalkeeper Gregor Kobel do not want to tiptoe to Wembley. Or maybe it’s to be able to look the Madrid ogre in the eyes. “We play against a team that is built to win the Champions League, whose mission is to win the Champions League. When you have a mission to complete, you can miss it. We have a dream. It’s the difference between a dream and a mission“, launched Edin Terzic.
The BVB coach knows that the flame of passion can burn the wings of much stronger opponents. After all, his Borussia dominated the “group of death” (PSG, AC Milan, Newcastle) before bringing down Antoine Griezmann’s Atlético Madrid and Kylian Mbappé’s PSG.
“Now, it is the absolute champion in the history of football and in this competition, who awaits us“, summed up the 41-year-old German. “I am firmly convinced that in a match anything is possible“and if anyone showed it this season, “it was us“, he slipped. Real have won their last eight European finals, their last failure dates back to 1981, “but all that doesn’t count”, insisted the manager of BVB, fifth in the last Bundesliga.
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