The final to end all finals: Liverpool vs Spurs
If you haven’t enjoyed Tottenham’s or Liverpool’s Champion League campaign’s this season you are either a football hater or a supporter of Arsenal or Everton. Will this final be as breathtaking as the route both sides took to get here? Have a read of our preview here:
How they reached the final
Neither of this year’s finalists won their respective groups with Paris Saint-Germain pipping Liverpool and Tottenham only just sneaking through ahead of Inter Milan but well behind Barcelona.
It could have been a sign of things to come but it turned out to be far from the case. If you look at the way Tottenham dispatched Borussia Dortmund with ease and Liverpool made light work of German champions Bayern Munich it showed that these two were real contenders.
Liverpool’s 6-1 aggregate victory over Porto in the quarter-final was simplicity itself and Tottenham’s away goals win over Manchester City was just so impressive but nothing compared to the semi-finals.
There has never been and probably never will again be such dramatic semi-finals as the ones seen in this year’s Champions League. Love it or loathe it, Europe’s biggest competition throws up some sublime drama.
Liverpool, trailing 3-0 from the first-leg, looked dead but then showed that zombie movies are realistic when their rotting corpse rose again to thump Barca off the face of the earth. It was also poetic to see James Milner prove Messi wrong as it turns out he is not the ass of the joke after all.
Tottenham, not to be outdone, reduced their manager to tears thanks to a late winner from Lucas Moura after being 3-0 down on aggregate against Ajax themselves. The Brazilian’s hat-trick was a joy to behold and will go down as one of the greatest moments in club history regardless of the result in the final.
Tottenham huge underdogs
Mauricio Pochettino deserves a knighthood for getting Spurs to the Champions League final. This was achieved without captain and top scorer Harry Kane which makes it all the more impressive.
The Argentine manager has not had the backing of his German counterpart at Liverpool. No money has been spent on big players in the last window while the Reds addressed their problem areas by bagging Virgil van Dijk and then securing the services of Alisson in goal.
What Tottenham have proved is that you cannot write them off. No one gave them a chance against Manchester City in the quarter-final yet they did it, then to come back against Ajax as well is unbelievable so this final is far from a given.
Liverpool v Tottenham betting tip
Firstly, given the semi-finals, you have to think this game will have goals so backing both teams to score at odds of 4/5 is a must. Secondly, you know that this has the potential to be a high scoring final so going over 3.5 goals at odds of 12/5 is a decent shout. Finally, semi-final hero Lucas Moura to score at any time can be had at odds of 7/2 so jump on board, strap yourselves in and enjoy the ride.
Post bet chat James's Tips:
In what was a disappointing final Spurs never got going