Kalema Lawrence
English side Liverpool FC, the five time winners of the European club football’s greatest prize, UEFA Champions League is set to take on the back-to-back defending champions and 12-time winners, Spanish side Real Madrid in a teeth grinding finals on the Saturday of 26th May 2018.
The Two most successful clubs in the name of Football history will be locking horns at the 63,000 seater stadium, NSC Olimpiyskiy Stadium in Kiev, Ukraine at 9:45 CAT.
However, reserving the details of the finals for the next sports articles, let us first take you through the Semi Finals and how they happened.
Bayern Munich Vs Real Madrid (Qual)
Bayern Munich fans will never forget the moment when their goalkeeper Sven Ulreich, committed a huge blunder that luckily or not luckily might have led the holders, Real Madrid edge into the final.
Ulreich missed a back pass to gift a vital second goal to Karim Benzema at the Bernabeu Stadium, and the Frenchman’s double in a pulsating 2-2 draw to ensure Real progress to the final level with 4-3 on aggregate.
Bayern had led early through Joshua Kimmich and a strike from James Rodriguez – who is on loan at the German club from Real – set up a tense finish. However, the hosts withstood considerable pressure, with the help of their Costa Rican shot stopper, Keira Navas to keep their bid for a third successive title on track.
Liverpool FC (Qual) Vs AS Roma
Liverpool set up a repeat of their 1981 meeting against Real despite a first Champions League defeat of the season at the Stadio Olimpico.
A chaotic 4-2 semi-final second leg loss to Roma saw Liverpool progress 7-6 on aggregate, with victory secured thanks to Sadio Mane’s 19th of the season and the rare sight of Georginio Wijnaldum’s first away goal in almost three years.
A fortuitous own goal by James Milner inbetween had put the hosts back in the game, while Edin Dzeko’s strike shortly after half-time ensured the Reds endured a testing conclusion and two late goals for Radja Nainngolan – including a penalty with the last kick of the game – came too late for Roma.
