Ancelotti hoping Real's best will be enough to beat Liverpool

PARIS : Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti hopes his team can be at their peak to give them a chance of winning Saturday's Champions League final against Liverpool at the Stade de France but is pragmatic enough to know that may still not be good enough.

Liverpool are unbeaten since March, have lost just three games this season and have already claimed two domestic cups, although they just missed out on the Premier League title, while Real romped to the LaLiga crown with a month to spare.

"I think we are in a great moment and will do our best to win on Saturday but sometimes your best isn't enough to succeed," Ancelotti told a news conference on Friday.

"Soccer is about intangibles that sometimes you can't control. We deserved to get to the final but to win it it's not about what you did before, it's about what happens on the pitch during the big game.

"We have to plan a game where we can show our qualities. The collective commitment, the individual quality and the impact that the substitutes make in important moments. The game will be won by the team who manage to fit the game to their strengths."

Ancelotti said that in his four previous Champions League finals as a manager - becoming the first coach to win the European Cup three times with two different clubs - the one he could not forget was AC Milan's 2005 loss to Liverpool.

The Reds had seemed out of contention but came from three goals down at halftime to level before winning a shootout.

"That team was probably the best I've coached in a final," Ancelotti said ahead of a game in which he will make history by being the first to manage in five Champions League finals.

The Italian is also on the verge of leapfrogging Bob Paisley and Zinedine Zidane to become the first