Head-To-Head Champions League Final Special: Liverpool vs Real Madrid

The biggest game in European club football is upon us. The Champions League final goes down on Saturday. Liverpool vs Real Madrid, two of the competitions most successful clubs.

Only one can win, but will it be Liverpool matching AC Milan with seven total titles, or will Real Madrid extend their record to 14?

Whether you're looking to make some money from the game or can't make up your mind to who you want to win, we have the usual Premier League head-to-head returning for this special game to help aid your decision.

Note: The stats used come from the two sides' Champions League campaigns.

 

Goals

Liverpool: 28

Real Madrid: 27

 

Both these sides have one of the top goal contributors in Europe on side. Liverpool's Mo Salah has 36 goal contributions in the Premier League this season, while Real's Karim Benzema has 39 in La Liga.

But we're not looking at league stats, we're looking at Champions League stats. And while Liverpool has one more goal scored than Real, Benzema has gone crazy for scoring during this year's campaign. 

He is the top scorer in the Champions League this season with 15, and is guaranteed the golden boot (unless Salah can score eight goals on Saturday). Better yet, if Benzema were to make it three hat-tricks during this campaign in the final, he would break Cristiano Ronaldo's record for most goals in a single Champions League season (17).

But is that really realistic?

 

xG per 90 minutes

Liverpool: 1.94

Real Madrid: 1.63

 

The answer to that previous question could be found with this stat here, which would suggest a resounding no. However, Real Madrid have not exactly been playing how anyone has expected them to this season.

Not many people outside of the Los Blancos fans would have predicted they would make it to the final. Their performances against Chelsea and Manchester City will go down in the history books for how dramatic they were. 

So always expect the unexpected from Real. For Liverpool, that's a rate of almost two expected goals a game, which seems about right for them.

 

Shots total per 90 minutes

Liverpool: 16.75

Real Madrid: 13.82

 

Liverpool are a very attacking team, so it is no surprise they rank joint second from all teams in this years' competition for total shots. They have actually taken the most shots so far with 201, but of course with Bayern Munich, who are first, not playing as many games as them, they go above the Reds for total shots per 90 minutes.

Real also jumps from 11th for shots total per 90 minutes to fourth for most shots taken. However, they have Liverpool beat for goals per shot, with 0.14 to Liverpool's 0.13.

 

Shots on target per 90 minutes

Liverpool: 5.83

Real Madrid: 5.13

 

It never really matters how many shots you take, it's about how many hit the target. And Real are better than Liverpool at troubling the keeper. While they have a lower rate, remember that they take less shots per game.

Real have a shot on target accuracy percentage of 37.1%, while Liverpool has a 34.8% rate. But, maybe slightly more importantly, Liverpool has a higher goals per shot on target rate. They have 0.39 goals per shot on target, while Real's rate is 0.37.

 

Goals conceded per 90 minutes

Liverpool: 1.08

Real Madrid: 1.11

 

Just like with goals scored, there is only one goal in it between these two sides. Both have strong defences and great goal keepers, although it might be fair to say Liverpool's is slightly better.

Alisson from Liverpool is arguably the best goal keeper in the world right now, or is definitely one of the best. He ranked top of our list of goalkeepers in Europe’s top five leagues with the highest clean sheet percentage that was published before the end of the season, but checking the stats now, he is still number one.

But again, that is in stats from the domestic leagues. If we change that to Champions League stats, Alisson and Real's Thibaut Courtois are actually exactly equal with 33.3% clean sheet percentage.

 

Penalties

Liverpool: 1/2

Real Madrid: 3/3

 

Karim Benzema is very consistent when it comes to penalties. In the league, he scored seven of his 11 attempts. In the Champions League, well, he took those three, so you can see how they went. Phenomenal player.

Liverpool trusted Mo Salah with both penalties, and of course he did miss one. However, in the league, he scored five of his six attempts. So chances of him missing another one if he has to take one in the final I'd say are fairly low.

 

Corners per game

Liverpool: 7.17

Real Madrid: 4.42

 

As always, with many shot attempts comes more corners. Liverpool have won more corners than anyone else during the campaign. They have also scored more goals from set pieces than any other team, with eight scored.

Real have only scored three goals from set pieces.

 

Cards

Liverpool: 14 Yellows, 0 Reds

Real Madrid: 24 Yellows, 0 Reds

 

Real Madrid are amongst the worst disciplined teams during this years campaign as far as yellow cards go. 24 is the second most yellows a team has gotten during this years competition.

Liverpool rank somewhat further down, but aren't perfect themselves.