Real Madrid

Gab Marcotti, Mark Ogden and Julien Laurens give their takes on a thrilling end to the Champions League semis and who they think will win the final.

The goals came later, Real Madrid had been outplayed, and just as important as the goals that were scored were the ones that weren't: Think of Jack Grealish being denied twice in quick succession by Ferland Mendy on the goal line and Courtois' save. Liverpool are in the final, yet they lost at home to Inter Milan and drew 3-3 at home with Benfica. Real Madrid lost at home to Chelsea and to Sheriff Tiraspol (!). When clubs travel in the Champions League, they go to the same grounds and stay in the same hotels, over and over again. Maybe the only thing that will make Pep Guardiola and City feel slightly better is knowing they did not commit the biggest Champions League meltdown -- but it will still haunt them for a long, long time. The greatest comebacks are Manchester United scoring twice against Bayern Munich in the last 60 seconds of the 1999 final to win the treble, and Liverpool coming back in Istanbul from 0-3 to 3-3 in their 2005 final triumph over AC Milan. But if you're just comparing these two comebacks, Liverpool may have had a greater mountain to climb in 2019, needing to overturn a 0-3 deficit from the first leg. On top of those games already mentioned by Gab, what about PSG throwing away a 4-0 first-leg lead against Barcelona to lose 6-5 on aggregate in 2017, or United's 3-2 semifinal second-leg win against Juventus in Turin in 1999 having trailed 2-0 on the night against one of the best teams of the decade? I'd bring it back, but to balance it out, any goals scored in extra time would not count as away goals because it would be unfair for an away team to have 120 minutes to score a goal whereas the home side only had 90 minutes in the first leg. Ogden: It can only be Benzema. Back-to-back hat tricks against PSG and Chelsea, a stunning display (and the Panenka penalty) against Manchester City at the Etihad and an all-round streak of performances that have put the Real Madrid forward among the front-runners for this year's Ballon d'Or. Benzema has been at Real since 2009 and you don't stay at the biggest club in the world for that long unless you are a world-class player. For one thing, we wouldn't have had any controversy as to why City only got three minutes of time added on and referee Daniele Orsato blew the final whistle with eight seconds left to play. Instead, this was probably the best we have ever had in the Champions League. Everything was exciting. But if we take away the emotion and the history and judge it purely on football, Liverpool have the edge and should win a seventh European Cup. It's a close run thing in all those areas, but I just feel that Liverpool have the edge, a bit more zip to their game. But while Liverpool can usually point to their European pedigree as giving them an X factor in the Champions League, it doesn't count against Real. Nobody has more X-factor in this competition than the 13-time champions and it's why they never know they are beaten, so of course they can win it.