Qualifying route

Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool couldn’t have chosen a wilier set of opponents for a Champions League final had they tried.

The 12-time champions qualified automatically for the group stages as La Liga winners. They beat rivals Barcelona to the title by three points, scoring in every single league game along the way.

Los Blancos were drawn into a competitive Group H. Two convincing early results against Borussia Dortmund and Apoel FC guided them to the top of the group, but their double-header against Tottenham (a draw at home followed by a 3-1 defeat at Wembley) proved the defending champions were beatable. The Spanish giants finished strongly, however, with two return wins in Cyprus and at home to Dortmund.

That wasn’t enough to win the group, however, and the last-16 draw pitted them against one of the pre-tournament favourites: PSG. Despite falling behind to the French champions at home in the first leg, Zinedine Zidane’s men produced two excellent displays to register two wins and progress to the last eight with relative ease.

The path to Kiev didn’t get any easier from there, but Real are on a hat-trick of titles for a reason. Despite facing the respective champions of Italy and Germany in the next two rounds, and while not always making it easy for themselves – see a remarkable second leg against Juventus at the Bernabeu – the champions head to the final unbeaten from their six knockout ties. It’s almost like they’ve been here before.