Champions League Final Has The Quality For A Zidane Repeat – Which Side Will Provide It?

With last Sunday seeing the culmination of both the Spanish La Liga and English Premier League 2021/22 campaigns, it has been another good old season for football fans. Spanish giants Real Madrid built up an impressive 13 point advantage of rivals Barcelona to take another domestic title, whereas there was an enthralling end to the Premier League campaign with Liverpool and Manchester City initially finding themselves on the losing end of their respective games against Wolverhampton Wanderers and Aston Villa.

Both sides eventually won out to take a final three points for the season, but the actual title itself was only decided in the final ten minutes of action. Liverpool’s eventual 3-1 victory over Wolves could not better City’s fightback from 2-0 down to take a 3-2 win over Villa and as Pep Guardiola lifted another title, he knew it had only been achieved by a single point – despite once having a 14 point advantage over Jurgen Klopp’s side.

That is now for the history books though and fans across the world are gearing up for the 2021/22 Champions League Final and build up from the press and media is already well underway, and former England winger Steve McManaman is a man who has recalled some of his Champions League memories with Betway Insider this week. The now pundit is a good person to lean on here given his ties to both Liverpool and Real Madrid from his professional playing days.

With Real Madrid looking for yet another European success in their storied history, and Liverpool fighting for a very impressive treble success this season, there is an educated guess to be had on where Liverpool Academy graduate McManaman’s loyalties lie (despite tasting for greater success in his shorter spell at the Santiago Bernabeu) but for neutral fans in particular, one memory he relayed in his interview would be gratefully received if either side were to repeat it.

For those with longer memories, think back to the 2002 Champions League Final held at Scotland’s Hampden Park where Bayer Leverkusen faced off against Real Madrid, and for those who like a bit of football nostalgia, the game featured names like Michael Ballack, Marko Babic, Dimitar Berbatov, Roberto Carlos, Luis Figo and even former Middlesbrough manager, Aitor Karanka – but one man undoubtedly stole the show and grabbed the winner in a moment of pure confident genius – French legend Zinedine Zidane.

McManaman recalls.

“It came out of nothing really, I think the average person would have controlled it, he decided to hit it with his so called weaker foot, his left foot. He caught it really nicely. Again, not a surprise. When you look around the dressing room, at your team mates, you know what they can do and what they can’t do. You know whether they can volley the ball or whether they’d rather control the ball and try to take people on. He was one who could hit it from a great height because he’d done it many times before. And he was ever so graceful, Zizou, and it was not a surprise that it went flying into the net.”

With the calibre of players on display from both sides, whilst an identical goal to Zidane’s might not be repeated, there has to be a very good chance that a comparable effort that even the side it is scored against would begrudgingly applaud.

It’s set to be a cracker at the Stade de France – let us all hope it lives up to it.