Liverpool, Tottenham set for Champions League showdown as Madrid picks up English accent

The Spanish capital is being taken over by a sea of English supporters on a searingly hot weekend before the Premier League sides clash at the Metropolitano Stadium at 9pm.

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For fans of Liverpool, it is an opportunity to end the campaign on the highest of highs after they agonisingly missed out to Manchester City in the Premier League title race, despite losing only once all season.

A year ago those fans were in Kiev to see their side lose 3-1 to Real Madrid as Mohamed Salah went off injured and in tears in the first half.

Underdogs then, they are the clear favourites now against opponents appearing in their first final in this competition since it started life as the European Cup in the 1950s.

Photo: AFP

Liverpool are clearly ahead are appearing in their ninth final in this competition and are looking to win it for the sixth time.

In contrast, it is 35 years since Spurs were in a European final, and arrive in Madrid weeks after moving into a sparkling new stadium, marking the start of a new era.

"We are in football because we want to win but I think to get to the final in the Champions League, that journey is the most difficult thing," said their manager, Mauricio Pochettino.

Tottenham could have top scorer Harry Kane back after an ankle injury, but the Anfield side have already beaten Spurs twice this season and have lost just one of their last 14 meetings with the north London outfit.

Klopp has lost his last six finals as a coach, but put a positive spin on that record.

"I am probably at the moment a world-record holder, in the last seven years at least, in winning semi-finals," the German remarked. "But if I wrote a book about that probably nobody would buy it."

Liverpool are here after their incredible comeback to beat Barcelona in the semi-finals, a 4-0 win at Anfield overturning a 3-0 first-leg deficit.

Egyptian superstar Salah missed that second leg but is fit now, while Klopp confirmed Roberto Firmino is ready after a groin injury.

Tottenham were 3-0 down on aggregate at half-time in the second leg of their tie against Ajax, yet went through on away goals thanks to Lucas Moura's dramatic hat-trick.

While UEFA's decision to play the Europa League showpiece between Chelsea and Arsenal in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Wednesday was heavily criticised, nobody doubts Madrid is a fitting venue this time.

Real's grand Santiago Bernabeu stadium has staged four past finals in this competition, as well as the final of a World Cup and a European Championship.

This time it is Atletico Madrid's new 68,000-seat home in the east of the city that is hosting.

There are so many Liverpool fans here that their city's local newspaper, the Liverpool Echo, was on sale in press kiosks in Madrid on Friday.

With Spain still haunted by the image of the old-school English football hooligan, police are worried about the prospect of trouble.

Francisco Pardo, director general of Spain's National Police, promised "probably the biggest deployment to guarantee security which we will carry out at a sporting event".

Whoever wins, the celebrations will be wild.

A sixth European Cup for Liverpool would put them ahead of Barcelona and Bayern Munich in the list of the competition's most successful clubs.

Spurs reached the final despite not outscoring their opponents in the quarter-finals or semi-finals -- a statistical quirk also achieved by PSV Eindhoven when they won the trophy in 1988.

If they can upset the odds, theirs will be the first new name on the cup since Chelsea in 2012.