By Fausto Triana

The Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in this capital will be the scene of a symbolic final repeated in the European tournament last season, when Real Madrid won its fifteenth Orejona against Borussia Dortmund.

Things have changed since then. The meringues still suffer from the retirement of their midfield conductor, the German Toni Kroos, and to some extent the versatile Nacho Fernández and the revolutionary player par excellence Joselu Mato, both in Arab leagues.

Now they could boast of the scoring voracity of Mbappé and Vinicius, the solidity in recovery of the midfield led by the Englishman Jude Bellingham and the Uruguayan Fede Valverde, and the secrecy in the goal of the Belgian Thibaut Courtois.

However, the Madrid team is not convincing in its game and its coach, Carlo Ancelotti, is frequently criticized for not finding the right style.

As long as they succeed, the negative comments fade away. In any case, losing to Lille in the Champions League (0-1) and beating Celta de Vigo with too many anguish (2-1) are worrying news to say the least.

Barcelona, ​​on the other hand, is becoming more and more reckless due to its taste for goals and a remarkable forcefulness in the area that confirms the excellent moment of the Polish Robert Lewandowski, Pichichi of the tournament to date with 10 goals, the inspired Brazilian Raphinha and the young man Lamine Yamal.

Then, Pedri contributes a lot and he is looking forward to getting back into shape after injuries to Dani Olmo and Gavi. There is a certain magic in the scheme projected by the German coach, Hansi Flick.

However, the mere mention of Bayern Munich shakes the Catalans' minds. It is their bête noire, although the 2-8 they conceded in 2020 was precisely against a Bavarian team led by Flick.

Anyway, it doesn't help much, because those now led by the Belgian Vincent Kompany still have ambitions for titles, and the Champions League is one of their favorite treasures.

ft