CL final: Clash of Madrid titans

In search of their first ever Champions League trophy, Atletico Madrid is set to face 10-time 

champion and city rivals Real Madrid at San Siro in Milan, Italy on Sunday.

Atletico have reached the Champions League final for the third-time in their club history while Real Madrid have made it to final clash for the 14th time. While Los Blancos have lifted the trophy 10 times out of the thirteen opportunities, Los Colchoneros have only managed to be runners up (1973-74, 2013-14) and will look to finally get hold of the coveted trophy and avenge their 2013-14 loss to the Whites.

Diego Simeone has already earned the experience of a Champions League final with Atletico Madrid while it’s the first time that Zinedine Zidane will be going into the Champions League final as a manager. Simeone will look to impart the same passion and enthusiasm in his players that he’s been generating all season. Atletico Madrid are one team whose work rate is high till the very end of the game and Real Madrid might face some serious trouble there.

Also, Simeone has built a rock solid defence with his boys and with the likes of Fernando Torres and Antoine Griezmann on the front, their counter-attacking abilities have been very impressive. On the other hand, Real Madrid are no more the fierce counter-attacking unit they were two years back. 

They heavily rely on building up their game through their midfielders. Simeone plays the 4-4-2 formation which Leicester has won the Premier League with while Zidane follows the tactics that Ancelotti used and plays the 4-3-3 formation with the BBC trio (Bale, Benzema, Cristiano) at the spearhead. Of course, Zidane doesn’t really get a chance to experiment as well with the compulsion of playing the BBC trio whenever they’re fit.

While the statistics of the Champions League favour Real Madrid as the Blancos have scored 27 goals this season and kept 10 clean sheets out of 12 games, Atletico Madrid are a very passionate side and they have already beaten Real in their last La Liga encounter. Also, they are coming into the game defeating the two league winners, Barcelona in the quarter-finals (3-2 on aggregate) and Bayern Munich in the semi-finals(on away goal advantage).