Former Reds striker Stan Collymore has delivered his verdict on Saturday’s Champions League final between Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday.
Jurgen Klopp’s team meet Spurs in the showpiece event in Madrid, and Collymore believes that the Reds will come out on top and lift the silverware that their epic season deserves.
“The front three of Roberto Firmino, Mo Salah and Sadio Mane, plus the form of Gini Wijnaldum and Jordan Henderson, will give them the edge, however slight,” he wrote in his column for the Daily Mirror.
“The only minor niggle in my mind is the three-week break, because the outcome will also depend on which team has managed best to stay on the bridle. If we were just a week after Liverpool beat Barca and Spurs beat Ajax I’d have said, ‘No-brainer, it’s a Liverpool victory.’
“If the break has had any sort of impact then it will narrow the gap because Liverpool are more of a gung-ho, express themselves team and Spurs more pragmatic. But even so, I still fancy Jurgen Klopp and his lads will do it.”
OPINION
Collymore pretty much hits the nail on the head, here. Liverpool will undoubtedly be the favourites going into this game. They defeated Tottenham twice this season and obviously finished miles ahead of them in the Premier League. If you go through the two teams man-to-man then the Reds are stronger, there’s no doubt about it. However, this is a one-off game and anything can happen. Spurs have shown throughout their Champions League campaign that they never say die. They keep going to the end and they have a number of dangerous players who can hurt you – Harry Kane or no. As Collymore says, though, the delay between the final game of the Premier League season and this clash may have negatively impacted the teams. It is the same for both sides, of course, so it shouldn’t hamper Liverpool too much, though. So you’d still have to say that Klopp’s team should come out on top here.
