Football Flash
The Champions League final this year will be pitting Real Madrid of Spain against Englands FC Liverpool. The two teams this week secured qualification to the final game
Florin Orban, 03.05.2018, 11:40
Real Madrid, the winner of the last two editions of the competition, on Tuesday qualified for the third time in a row to the Champions League final. Real drew 2-all against Bayern Munich on Santiago Bernabeu stadium in the return leg of the semi-finals. In the first leg, Real had secured a 2-1 away win.
The fate of the match was virtually decided early into the second half, after goalkeeper Sven Ulreich short-passed the ball to Corentin Tolisso, an error capitalized on by striker Karim Benzema. Bayern made it 2-all on minute 63, Columbian forward James Rodrigues scoring the equalizer.
On Wednesday, Rome grabbed a 4-2 win over Liverpool in a dramatic encounter. Liverpool took the lead, Rome made it 1-all, then the English side scored again, but Rome once again came from behind. A controversial highlight was Trent Alexander-Arnold’s handball on minute 66 in Liverpool’s penalty box, when the referee waved play-on. Towards the end of the game, Rome scored another two goals, which unfortunately was not enough to send the game into extra time.
Worth mentioning is the fact that prior to Wednesday’s game AS Rome didn’t receive a single goal at home this season in Championships League. Also, this was Liverpool’s first defeat in this year’s edition.
The Champions League final will be played on Saturday, May 26, in Kiev, Ukraine.
In other news from international football, let us note that Standard Liege of Belgium has rejected AS Rome’s 7-million-euro bid to transfer Romanian footballer Razvan Marin, the daily La Derniere Heure writes. Marin is wanted by coach Eusebio Di Francesco, who shares the same manager as the Romanian footballer.
On January 21, a day after Standard’s 2-1 win against Eupen, when Marin contributed an assist, the club from Rome sent their bid, which was immediately rejected by Standard’s president, Bruno Venanzi. Standard’s boss says Marin has only just joined the club and doesn’t want him to leave, La Derniere Heure also writes.
