Key events
33 min: Sancho and Ryerson combine to get the better of Mendy down the right. The latter makes off towards the box, only for the whistle to sympathetically blast in Mendy’s favour. Dortmund look more likely to open the scoring, by some distance as well.
32 min: Dortmund stroke it around in the middle of the park. They must be wondering how they’re not leading. “This is like 2022 all over again,” writes Tom Barneby. “Real living a charmed life before the inevitable goal to make it 1-0 after 85 minutes. I feel bad for Dortmund already.”
30 min: Corner for Real on the right. But they’re seriously rattled, and the set piece gives Dortmund the opportunity to break six on three! Sancho, on the right, crosses for Adeyemi on the other flank. Adeyemi enters the box only to be shoved over by Mendy. From behind? Not quite, so it’s no penalty, though Mendy was gambling right on the edge there.
28 min: Another huge chance for Dortmund! Adeyemi is sent tearing down the inside-left channel, leaving Camavinga in the dust. He enters the box and shoots from a tight angle. Courtois saves, but only parries in the direction of Fullkrug. However the ball is slightly behind the striker, who twists in mid-air in an attempt to steer goalwards, but can’t get any purchase on the ball. It sits up in mid-air and the keeper claims. A huge stroke of luck for Real!
27 min: Real Madrid have enjoyed 61 percent of possession so far. But it’s BVB who have had all the big chances. Will they regret not taking one? Vinicius Junior spins Ryerson with absurd ease down the left and looks for Rodrygo in the middle. Schlotterbeck hooks clear to spare Ryerson’s blushes.
26 min: Can gets up and walks to the touchline. It looks as though he’ll be fine to continue. And indeed he is. Back on he comes.
25 min: I suspect, though I’m not 100 percent sure, that Fullkrug would have been flagged offside. But it was damn close. VAR would have had some work to do. Meanwhile Can goes down and requires some treatment. Play stops.
23 min: Sabitzer makes good into the Real box on the right and cuts back for Adeyemi, who enters the box only to be denied the chance of shooting by Camavinga. He wants a penalty but he’s not getting one. Dortmund come straight back at Real, Adeyemi dinking a pass through the centre of the defence and releasing Fullkrug, who steers the ball across Courtois and onto the base of the right-hand post! Real clear. How did that not go in?!
21 min: A huge opportunity for Dortmund! Adeyemi curves his run on the halfway line, Ian Rush style, and is released down the middle by a long ping. He’s one on one with Courtois! He tries to round him on the left, when momentum was surely taking him the other way. A heavy touch means he has to settle for a corner, which Courtois fumbles but eventually claims. Dortmund should be ahead.
20 min: Valverde plays a clever diagonal ball to release Carvajal on the right. Carvajal’s cross flies behind both Vinicius Junior and Bellingham. He slams the turf in frustration.
19 min: Sabitzer steals the ball off Bellingham, and attempts to launch a counter with Real light at the back. The referee awards Real a very generous free kick and Dortmund’s chance to cause problems is denied. The ref has made three strange decisions now. Hopefully that’s the end of it.
17 min: Now it’s Dortmund’s turn to play it around patiently at the back. They’ve started in confident mood.
15 min: Carvajal and Valverde again combine down the right. The ball’s laid off to Vinicius Junior, who flays a wild effort off-target from distance. An enjoyably brisk opening to this match, with both teams showing in attack.
14 min: Fullkrug chases a looped pass down the inside-left channel. He hooks back for Brandt, who enters the box, takes a heavy touch, then improvises a flipper-shot across Courtois and towards the bottom-right corner. Just wide. Had that been on target, Courtois wasn’t getting to it.
13 min: Sancho jinks in from the right flank and is cynically clipped by Camavinga. A bit later on, that’d surely be worth a booking. But again the referee keeps calm. Both teams have had one each.
12 min: Valverde shows again on the right flank. He chases after Carvajal’s header, then cuts back and one-twos with Bellingham, before blasting miles over the bar from the edge of the box. Real beginning to bare their teeth, albeit elegantly.
10 min: Real impose themselves with some patient possession at the back. Suddenly Valverde attempts to burst through a gap down the inside-right channel. He’s blocked by Schlotterbeck, who is fairly fortunate not to concede a free kick just outside the box. The referee generously waves play on.
8 min: Rodrygo very nearly closes down Kobel, who had been given a bit of a hospital pass by Ryerson. The keeper manages to get enough on the clearance to avoid problems. “Seconds into their biggest showpiece of the year and there’s an interloper on the pitch?” splutters Justin Kavanagh. “After the debacle of the Euros final, you have to think that the Wembley organizers and Uefa couldn’t run a bath.”
7 min: Brandt sticks the corner into the mixer. Füllkrug flicks on but Rüdiger clears. An impressive front-foot start by the underdogs, though.
6 min: Sabitzer crosses from the right in the hope of finding Füllkrug. Real clear. Ryerson has another go. The ball pings off Mendy for the first corner of the evening.
5 min: Incidentally, there have been reports from Spain suggesting the aforementioned Vinícius Júnior is under the weather, and playing on some sort of flu medication. He seems full of energy nonetheless.
3 min: The game restarts. Vinícius Júnior dribbles down the left touchline but runs out of road. He encourages the Real end to sing even louder anyway, waving his hands in the come-on fashion. They don’t need much encouragement, to be fair.
2 min: It’s taking some time for the peelers to de-eejitify the pitch. Turns out there were three of them. Sabitzer takes down the third clown.
20 secs: An eejit runs onto the pitch, enters the centre circle, and films a sweeping 360-degree shot of Wembley on his phone. Good grief.
Borussia Dortmund kick off. The battle for the famous old trophy, which was popped onto a plinth by 2002 hero Zinedine Zidane, is on! “My football-viewing life (sartorial divsion) is now complete,” writes Charles Antaki. “Zidane enters bearing cup, not only with ghastly white trousers, but his blazer buttoned up wrong.”
The teams are out! Borussia Dortmund, the nominal home team, are in their first-choice yellow and black. So there’s no conflict with Real Madrid, who sport their famous meringue-white shirts. Wembley is bouncing ahead of its first Champions League final in 11 years. A quick blast of Zadok the Priest (Version) then we’ll soon be up and running.
The kick-off show. Lenny Kravitz is currently playing his hit Are You Gonna Go My Way. Got to be honest, they’ve missed a trick not asking Sarah Bee of Chart Music, the greatest of all the podcasts, to accompany him on kazoo. One for all the pop-crazed youngsters out there.
A reminder of how these two teams got here. Spoiler alert: things got emotional.
You’ll Never Walk Alone. It’s an anthem for Borussia Dortmund as well, and Rodgers and Hammerstein’s most terrace-friendly ditty is currently ringing around Wembley. Up in the posh seats, the aforementioned Kloppo sings and sways in the emotional style. A pfenning for all of the conflicting thoughts running through the head of the former Liverpool boss right now. He looks healthy and happy and about ten years younger. Premier League management is a job of work all right.
Dortmund have Jurgen Klopp, so Real need a celebrity fan of their own in attendance. Step forward Jay-Z, who is at Wembley to support his Roc Nation Sports client Vinicius Júnior. In other news, the Wembley turf is looking lush, so while Jay-Z has 99 problems … no, you deserve better than that. I’m sorry for even thinking about it.
Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid have met each other on 14 previous occasions, all of them in the Champions League. Real have won six matches to Dortmund’s three, but both clubs can boast one particularly notable victory. In the 1997-98 edition, Real knocked out the reigning champions in the semis thanks to first-leg goals from Fernando Morientes and Christian Karembeu at the Bernabéu, while in the 2012-13 semis, Dortmund stunned Real at the Westfalenstadion, Robert Lewandowski getting all of their goals in a 4-1 rout.
Just like Real Madrid before them, there are no real surprises in the Borussia Dortmund starting XI. Mats Hummels is the only player from 2013 still in their starting XI; Marco Reus, who also started here 11 years ago, will most likely come off the bench at some point for his swansong. Jadon Sancho, on loan from Manchester United, lines up along with another erstwhile Old Trafford star in Marcel Sabitzer, while Emre Can plays in his second final after picking up a runners-up medal with Liverpool in 2018.
The teams
Borussia Dortmund: Kobel, Ryerson, Hummels, Schlotterbeck, Maatsen, Can, Sabitzer, Sancho, Brandt, Adeyemi, Fullkrug.
Subs: Ozcan, Nmecha, Haller, Reus, Wolf, Moukoko, Malen, Sule, Meyer, Laurenz Lotka, Watjen, Bynoe-Gittens.
Real Madrid: Courtois, Carvajal, Rudiger, Nacho, Mendy, Valverde, Camavinga, Kroos, Bellingham, Rodrygo, Vinicius Junior.
Subs: Eder Militao, Alaba, Modric, Lunin, Joselu, Lucas, Tchouameni, Ceballos, Garcia, Diaz, Guler, Arrizabalaga.
Referee: Slavko Vincic (Slovenia).
This is the fifth European Cup final between teams from Germany and Spain …
1960: Real Madrid 7-3 Eintracht Frankfurt
1974: Bayern Munich 4-0 Atlético Madrid (replay after 1-1 draw)
2000: Bayern Munich 1-1 Valencia (Bayern won 5-4 on pens)
2002: Real Madrid 2-1 Bayer Leverkusen
… and while both of those Spanish triumphs were by Real Madrid and on British soil, there is a little historical succour for Dortmund, who have had some success on these islands of their own: they won the 1966 Cup Winners’ Cup at Hampden, beating Bill Shankly’s Liverpool 2-1 after extra time.
This will be the eighth European Cup final to be played at Wembley …
1963: AC Milan 2-1 Benfica
1968: Manchester United 4-1 Benfica (aet)
1971: Ajax 2-0 Panathinaikos
1978: Liverpool 1-0 Club Brugge
1992: Barcelona 1-0 Sampdoria (aet)
2011: Barcelona 3-1 Manchester United
2013: Bayern München 2-1 Borussia Dortmund
… but the first of them to feature 18-time finalists Real Madrid. The Spanish giants have however contested two finals in Scotland – the legendary 7-3 rout of Eintracht Frankfurt in 1960 and the Zidane show against Bayer Leverkusen in 2002 – plus the 2017 edition in Wales, in which they routed Juventus 4-1. Hey, any old excuse …
The Yellow Wall is on tour and is already making its presence felt in Wembley. Plenty of party noise, not least because an old pal is also in town, and his trademark grin has just been flashed up on the big screen. Ah Jürgen, we’re going to miss you.
Real Madrid don’t hang about. They’ve already announced their starting XI. Thibaut Courtois starts only his fifth match of the season and his first in the Champions League since Manchester City whistled four goals past his lugs in the semis at the Etihad last May. His deputy Andriy Lunin has recovered from flu and takes a place on the bench. Toni Kroos will play his 153rd and final Champions League game for Real Madrid.
Preamble
It’s the 69th European Cup / Champions League final! Real Madrid have been involved in 17 of the previous stagings, winning 14 of them, last losing one in 1981, nine appearances ago. It’s not a point that desperately needs making, but let’s say it anyway: los Merengues are rather good at this.
Borussia Dortmund on the other hand have a more grounded record of one from two. BVB lifted this trophy in 1997; they lost on their other final appearance, here at Wembley, in 2013. They’re very much the underdogs tonight, and not just for all those historical, date-stamped reasons: Real are the new Spanish champions while Dortmund finished a disappointing fifth in the Bundesliga; Real boast Vinícius Júnior, Toni Kroos, Jude Bellingham, Luka Modrić plus The Wall in goal; Real are Real, who always find a way to get it done.
But then Dortmund were underdogs against Juventus back in ‘97, and they comfortably won that. So there’s some precedent in their favour, too. Throw in the staunch way in which they saw off Atletico Madrid and PSG in earlier rounds, plus the narrative purity of their return to Wembley and a last hurrah for 2013 veterans Marco Reus and Mats Hummels, and perhaps there’s just something in the air this year. All of which is a long-winded way to say that this is set up deliciously: the kings of European football versus a club that revels in the role of underdog, facing off in the biggest club match of the season. Kick-off at Wembley is at 8pm BST. It’s on!