Liverpool must overcome the Madrid mythology

Perhaps you are already aware that Real Madrid have won all seven of the European finals they have contested in the Champions League era. Include the back-to-back UEFA Cup wins of the mid-1980s and it is nine out of nine.

If these games were coin tosses - and they have included matches against Juventus, Atletico Madrid and Liverpool - then the odds of winning that many in a row are over 500 to one. No wonder they say that Real Madrid do not play finals, they win them.

But there is another feature of Madridismo that Liverpool must overcome if they are to lift the trophy in Paris on Saturday evening and that is the comeback - la remontada. There have been plenty of them by Real Madrid en route to this Champions League final.

Two goals down with half an hour remaining against Paris Saint-Germain in the round of 16, they were 10 minutes away from elimination against Chelsea in the last eight too. Against Manchester City in the semi-final, they were two down after 89 minutes and won.

Supporters refer to it as the spirit of Juanito, the former player around whom the mythology of the Madrid comeback has been constructed. It was he, in one of those aforementioned UEFA Cup runs, who entered folklore with talk of its inevitability against Inter.

Having been beaten in the away leg of their semi-final, Juanito told any opponent who would listen - in Italian - that 90 minutes is a long time at the Bernabeu. So it proved - and so it has continued to prove for many of their opponents in Europe to this day.

Así gana el Madrid. This is how Madrid win, so the chant goes.

That belief in destiny, the winning mentality that convinces players and supporters that anything is possible no matter how unlikely it might seem, is a thread that runs