Saturday, June 1, 2024, will be the most anticipated night for football fans, as the kings of European football, Real Madrid, face Germany’s Borussia Dortmund, at the historic Wembley Stadium to decide who wins the coveted Champions League trophy.
Real Madrid, the competition’s current record holder with 14 Champions League trophies, will look to add the fifteenth trophy to their cabinet on Saturday, while the Yellow and Blacks will strive to add to their tally since their last in 1997.
Would Dortmund be defiant enough to take on the relentless Madrid team, who have played 12 matches in the competition without losing?
This is a key question that football fans are currently debating – with Madrid massively tipped as the favourites to win in the German-Spanish final. Dortmund, on the other hand, have been deemed as underdogs with little experience in the competition, having suffered only one loss in their last 11 games while keeping six clean sheets.
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Dortmund’s last Champions League final was also held at Wembley Stadium, where they suffered a 2-1 defeat by their German rivals, Bayern Munich in 2013.
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Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund have clashed 14 times in the Champions League. Real Madrid has won six matches against Dortmund, with five draws between both teams, and three wins for Dortmund.
The two teams have faced off six times in the knockout rounds, each playing three two-legged matches. The first of those came in the 1998 Champions League semifinals, with Madrid winning 2-0 on aggregate at the Santiago Bernabeu. The following match was in the 2013 semifinals, with Dortmund defeating Madrid 4-1 at the Signal Iduna Park despite Madrid’s 2-0 win at the Bernabeu Stadium in the second leg.
However, in the 2014 quarter-finals, Madrid avenged their defeat with Gareth Bale, Isco, and Cristiano Ronaldo scoring in the first leg to give the Spanish giants a 3-0 victory. Despite the Germans’ initial 2-0 home victory, Real Madrid won 3-2 on aggregate.
It is also worth noting that both teams have German players who will be leaving their respective clubs after the epic final. Toni Kroos of Real Madrid will retire from the beautiful game after UEFA EURO 2024.
Marco Reus, Borussia Dortmund’s poster boy, will retire at the end of the season after 12 years and 428 first-team appearances for his childhood club.
Will Real Madrid make history by winning the Champions League trophy for the fifteenth time? Or will the underdogs, Dortmund, sail triumphantly to Germany with the trophy safely in their possession?
