Record winners Real Madrid are the bookmakers overwhelming favourites in tonight’s Uefa Champions League final showdown with Borussia Dortmund at the iconic Wembley Stadium in England. Carlo Ancelotti’s Primera Liga champions are the ultimate European football aristocrats who are chasing a record extending 15th crown while Edin Terzic’s Black and Yellows are playing in only their third ever final.
2022 Uefa keeper of the year Thibaut Courtois is expected to start in goal at the expense of Andriy Lunin despite declining to take part in Euro 2024 but Aurelien Tchouameni misses out after sitting out of the final three La Liga matches with an injury sustained in Los Blancos’ 2-1 semifinal victory over Bayern Munich.
Compatriot Eduardo Camavinga is Tchouameni’s likely replacement in the midfield engine room where he will partner Uruguayan Fede Valverde and German Toni Kroos who is playing his final game for the Santiago Bernabeu club.
David Alaba remains sidelined by injury and newly recuperated Eder Militao doesn’t have enough game time under his belt to dislodge club captain Nacho Fernandez from central defense where he will partner Antonio Rudiger. Dani Carvajal and Ferland Mendy are shoo-ins for the full back slots.
La Liga player of the season Jude Bellingham renews acquaintance with familiar faces in his first match against Dortmund since swapping Signal Iduna Park for the Bernabeu for over €100m. In what is expected to be a cagey affair, personal duel with Marcel Sabitzer may well determine the outcome of the contest.
Terzic will ask his charges to forget about the club’s chequered domestic form which saw them finish fifth in the Bundesliga and instead draw inspiration from the class of 1997 when Borussia Dortmund were the overwhelming underdogs but upset favourites Juventus 3-1 via goals from a fresh faced Lars Ricken and Karl Heinz Riedle.
The young German tactician was in the crowd as a fan at Wembley Stadium when Dortmund lost the 2013 Champions League final while Ancelotti, who is already the most successful coach in the competition, is aiming to add onto the four crowns he won with AC Milan and Real Madrid in 2003, 2007, 2014 and 2022.
