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LONDON: Real Madrid and Villarreal stand in the way of Manchester City and Liverpool taking their battle for domestic honours to the biggest stage of all next month in the Champions League final.
A clash between City and Liverpool in Paris on May 28 would mean a third all-English final in four years.
The huge economic advantage enjoyed by the Premier League in TV rights deals is behind Madrid’s continued motivation to seek the comfort of guaranteed income streams from a European Super League.
However, Villarreal’s run to the last four is a reminder of why there is such opposition to a closed shop ESL.
The Yellow Submarine, with just one major trophy in their history, would have been shut out of competing on the European stage had the Super League 12, which also included City and Liverpool, succeeded in forming a breakaway league last year.
Now the team from a town with a population that would fit inside Anfield are 180 minutes away from the biggest game in club football if they can derail Liverpool’s quest for a quadruple.
Jurgen Klopp’s men trail City by a point with five games to go in a thrilling Premier League title race.
But they got the better of City to reach next month’s FA Cup final and lifted the League Cup in February.
Klopp already has experience of losing out to Villarreal boss Unai Emery on the European stage as his Sevilla side beat Liverpool in the 2016 Europa League final.
That was just one of Emery’s four Europa League titles, the last of which came when Villarreal beat Manchester United in last year’s final just to qualify for the Champions League.
But Liverpool’s status as favourites ahead of Wednesday’s first leg at Anfield is understandable given the difference in resources between the clubs.
City are also expected to reach the final for a second consecutive year despite the vast gulf in European pedigree between the English champions and Real.
The 13-time European champions are into their 30th semi-final, while City have reached the last four for just the third time.
But Pep Guardiola’s men were convincing winners when the sides met in the last 16 two years ago.
“If we have to compete with their history, we don’t have a chance. It speaks for itself,” Guardiola said at his pre-match press conference on Monday, when reminded of the contrasting records of the two clubs, ahead of the the first leg at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday.
”We have the desire to compete against them. For us playing against them is an incredible test and we want to try it. [We will] Suffer when we suffer, [but] stick together. Try to do as best as possible.”
“It would be the same if we face Bayern Munich or Barcelona, the teams who have been here many times. A decade ago we weren’t here and now we are here. It’s good lessons for the future.”
Guardiola also talked down the significance of the role of himself and Carlo Ancelotti in the game, saying that in the Champions League, games are won by the decision-making of players on the field.
“History is there, we can’t change it, but it’s eleven against eleven and one ball moving. The players decide their decision making,” he said.
“You can imagine a plan but it’s eleven v eleven, the quality of the [players], how strong they are, it will make a difference. This game is players, it won’t be Carlo or myself who win it.”
Guardiola highlighted the experience of the Real players, many of whom have won multiple Champions League titles.
“We play against players who have been in this position many times,” he said. “That’s why they have things that maybe still we don’t have. But maybe there are things we have they don’t have, I don’t know. At the end it is 11 v 11.”
Real produced a remarkable fightback from 2-0 down to beat Paris St Germain in the last 16 and responded after falling 3-0 down to Chelsea at the Santiago Bernabeu to reach the semi-finals in dramatic fashion.
Ancelotti’s men will have home advantage again in the second leg next week, but there are doubts as to whether Los Blancos can continue to be carried by the ageing legs of Karim Benzema and Luka Modric.
The excellence achieved in the era of Klopp and Guardiola in England’s north-west has seen Liverpool and City persistently rewrite the record books.
Over the next 10 days they have the chance to prove they are the two best sides in Europe by ending La Liga’s challenge to English dominance of the Champions League.