Key talking points ahead of Liverpool’s Champions League final with Real Madrid

Liverpool and Real Madrid go toe-to-toe as Paris hosts a mouth-watering Champions League final on Saturday evening.

Ahead of the Stade de France showdown, the PA news agency picks out some of the key talking points.

Mohamed Salah has spoken of taking revenge against Madrid after his final against them in 2018 was ended by a shoulder injury following a Sergio Ramos challenge in the opening half-hour. Salah scored against Real when the two teams met again last season in a 3-1 defeat in Spain but they exited the competition at the quarter-final stage after a goalless draw at home. But Salah is not alone in his mission as there are at least five other players expected to start who all suffered heartbreak in Kiev after Gareth Bale’s double-strike. Sadio Mane scored an equaliser that night and is the man in form with nine goals in his last 13 appearances.

Few could have foreseen Carlo Ancelotti managing another Champions League final when he oversaw Everton’s 10th-placed finish in the Premier League this time last year. But the well-travelled Italian has impressed back at the Bernabeu and is hoping to halt Liverpool’s Champions League quest after masterminding Real Madrid’s LaLiga triumph. A two-time winner as a player, he is the first coach to lead a side into five Champions League finals. The 62-year-old is seeking a record-breaking fourth European Cup triumph as manager – a run which includes AC Milan’s 2007 triumph against Liverpool. Given that came two years after his side’s remarkable collapse against the Reds in Istanbul, there is little chance of complacency slipping in.

Summer signing Ibrahima Konate has started six of Liverpool’s last seven Champions League matches, highlighting the level of trust manager Jurgen