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Key events
Preamble
This is the 69th European Cup / Champions League final! Real Madrid have participated in 17 of the previous matches, winning 14 of them, last losing in 1981, nine appearances ago. This isn’t a point that desperately needs to be made, but let’s say it anyway: los merengues are pretty good at it.
Borussia Dortmund on the other hand have a more solid record than one in two. BVB lifted this trophy in 1997; they lost in their other final appearance, here at Wembley, in 2013. They are very much the underdogs tonight, and not just for all those historic, date-stamped reasons: Real are Spain’s new champions, while Dortmund finished a disappointing fifth place in the Bundesliga; Real boast Vinicius Junior, Toni Kroos, Jude Bellingham, Luka Modric plus the Goal Wall; The real ones are the Real ones who always find a way to do it.
But then Dortmund were underdogs against Juventus in 1997 and won comfortably. So there is also some precedent in their favor. Throw in the unflappable way they handled Atletico Madrid and PSG in previous rounds, plus the purity of their Wembley return narrative and last hurray for 2013 veterans Marco Reus and Mats Hummels, and maybe this year just has something in the air. All of which is a long way of saying that this is a great set-up: the kings of European football against a club that relishes the role of underdogs, facing off in the biggest club game of the season. Wembley kicks off at 20:00 BST. It’s on!
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