Cristiano Ronaldo V Mo Salah: A Duel That Will Define The Champions League Final

Cristiano Ronaldo V Mo Salah: A Duel That Will Define The Champions League Final
09:41, 25 May 2018

Between them, they share 25 goals in this season’s Champions League. Over the course of the 2017/18 campaign, nobody has managed to outscore either Cristiano Ronaldo or Mohamed Salah. They have been the star men in Europe’s premier club competition this season and so it’s only fitting that they will face off in Saturday’s final in Kiev.

It’s rare that the narrative comes to a head in such a theatrical away. For instance, Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have vied for the title as the continent’s best player over the past decade, yet they have still to meet, with their current clubs, in a Champions League final. We, as football fans, have yet to be granted that spectacle.

This season, though Salah has crashed the top table. Along with Messi and Ronaldo, he is currently one of the best players in the European game, taking both the Premier League and Champions League by storm this season. If he keeps this sort of form up over the course of 2018, he will be the Ballon d’Or frontrunner come the end of the year.

Not since the 2009 Champions League final, when Ronaldo was with Manchester United, have we been presented with such a compelling individual duel. Of course, Liverpool are about much more than just Salah, just as Real Madrid’s quality is down to more than just Ronaldo, but the direct meeting of these two players is still something to be savoured.

Nine years ago, it was Messi who came out on top. The Argentine was faced with his great adversary in Rome, although these were early days of their rivalry. Nonetheless, Messi and Ronaldo were the two best players on the planet at the time. What happened that night at the Stadio Olimpico served as a precursor for what we have witnessed since. It was a sign of things to come. 

Given that Ronaldo is now 33 years old, it’s unlikely that the Portuguese forward will spark up a rivalry with Salah like the one he has with Messi, but for the Egyptian this weekend’s Champions League final could be the start of even bigger and better things. Liverpool, as a team, are not at the culmination point of their development, they are still in the midst of it.

Saturday's final could prove to be something of a damp squib. The tension and pressure of the event could weigh down Salah and Ronaldo, but it seems unlikely. These are two players who thrive in these sort of scenarios. These are the sort of games that define who they are. Sometimes, narrative aligns with spectacle. Salah and Ronaldo could put on quite the show in Kiev.

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