Liverpool vs Real Madrid LIVE: Champions League final result, score and reaction
Relive all the action from the Stade de France after Vinicius ensured Real Madrid of a record-extending 14th European Cup
Liverpool were denied a seventh European crown as Real Madrid became kings of the continent once again thanks to Vinicius Junior’s strike in a Champions League final marred by chaos outside the Stade de France.
Paris stepped in as host after UEFA stripped St Petersburg of the showpiece following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but it did not provide a fitting host as European royalty went toe-to-toe in the biggest club match of the season.
Kick-off had to be delayed by 36 minutes due to substantial security issues outside the Stade de France, where Liverpool would be edged out 1-0 in a tense, engaging final settled by Real star Vinicius Jr.
Jurgen Klopp’s Reds were unable to find a response to the second-half strike as Carlo Ancelotti, managing a record fifth Champions League final just a year after leaving Everton, oversaw the Spanish giants’ 14th European Cup triumph.
It was a heartbreaking end to a memorable season for Liverpool, who won the Carabao Cup and FA Cup before being pipped to the Premier League title by a point and losing in the French capital.
Relive all the action from Paris:
From tears to beers: How Liverpool found defiance amid despondency of Champions League final defeat
Real Madrid eye statement Champions League victory amid shifting landscape of European football
Is Karim Benzema the deadliest finisher in Europe? Dissecting the data behind the world’s best goalscorers
Champions League final 2022: A late change for Liverpool?
Naby Keita has moved up to train with the starting XI as Thiago Alcantara shuffled off down the tunnel. He returned to the pitch but is doing a warm-up on his own.
Will there be a late change to the starting XI for Jurgen Klopp’s men?
Champions League final 2022: Warming up
Champions League final 2022: Henderson on winning Europe’s biggest competition
Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson explained what it feels like to win a Champions League and why he is determined to repeat that feat again tonight.
“To finally win the Champions League [in 2019], after missing out the year before was an emotional time.” he said, “That’s definitely number one in my career. It’s why I have the motivation for Saturday.
“You never know when your last chance is, so that’s why the next opportunity is the biggest one. This is everything for us. We never know what’ll happen in future, so we have to cherish every moment.
“We’ve worked for a long time for these opportunities. We need to be ready.
We have given absolutely everything all season. Saturday is a huge opportunity to finish on a high. It was a tough time after [the 2018 defeat]. We all used the experience to be better and stronger.”
Champions League final 2022
The Liverpool team jog out to a thunderous cheer in the Stade de France. They’re warming up ahead of kick off.
Champions League final 2022: Real Madrid are the underdogs?
Speaking on BT Sport former Liverpool forward Peter Crouch says that Real Madrid will be the underdogs for tonight’s final and have been operating under that assumption for most of the campaign.
“Real Madrid have been the underdog in every game they have played.” he said, “The weight of the shirt and the history of the club comes into play as they keep finding a way [to win].”
Battle between Trent Alexander-Arnold and Vinicius Junior set to decide Champions League final
That Liverpool are a better team than Real Madrid is a fairly uncontroversial point ahead of this year’s Champions League final. The consensus is that they will have the edge in many of the individual match-ups across the pitch at the Stade de France. There is no easy way to stop Jurgen Klopp’s side from playing their game. There is an obvious way to hit them back, though.
And in Paris, they will come up against the opponents who were responsible for their most recent Champions League exit in April of last year. Liverpool were short of any of their first-choice centre-backs then, due to the freak run of injuries that made last season the most difficult that Klopp has experienced in six and a half years at Anfield. Their exit at the quarter-final stage to Madrid was not especially surprising given those wider difficulties.
No player did more to bring about that exit, though, than Vinicius Junior. By repeatedly finding space in behind Trent Alexander-Arnold down Liverpool’s right, he scored twice in Madrid’s 3-1 first leg win and had chances to settle the tie once and for all in the goalless draw at Anfield. It is easy to read too much into those games. That was a different Liverpool. Yet it was also a different Vinicius.
The battle between young stars set to decide the Champions League final
The Real Madrid forward has been one of the most improved players in Europe this season and is the perfect weapon to exploit Liverpool’s style of play in Paris
Champions League final 2022: Another one to the tally
One of these team will add another Champions League trophy to their tally this evening. Real Madrid are well out in front as the club who have won this competition the most (13) but Liverpool are third on the list with six and can move up to second if they win tonight.
Which will it be? 14 for Madrid or 7 for Liverpool?
Champions League final 2022: Brilliant Benzema
Karim Benzema, a 34-year-old forward, has 15 goals to his name in this season’s Champions League, and is making his 142nd appearance in the competition overall – moving him level with former team-mate Raúl González in joint-fifth in terms of most games overall.
He has seven Champions League goals against English teams this season; the most by a player in a single campaign in the competition’s history.
'The game of the season’: Weight of history adds to Champions League final shaping up to be a modern classic
Although the Liverpool players attempted to treat this like any of the many big games they’ve played, it took a mere step on the Stade de France pitch to change that. This is the club’s third Champions League final in five years, but there’s still that extra electrical charge to the air.
“It’s the occasion, it’s talking in a press conference here,” Trent Alexander-Arnold said. “There’s different things you do around the game. It’s the special game, the one that everyone wants to play in.
“It’s the game of the season.”
The hope is that it will also be the game of the season in terms of spectacle. That is one thing the Champions League has not really served up amid all its drama, and you arguably have to go back to 2005 for the last truly great showpiece, but there are little elements coming together that could set up a classic.
Weight of history adds to Champions League final shaping up to be a modern classic
Two of Europe’s heavyweights meet on the grandest of stages and in a repeat of the 2018 final
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