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Liverpool winger Mohamed Salah revealed that playing the UEFA Champions League final is a “dream come true”.
Salah is part of the Reds’ squad that will face Real Madrid in the competition’s final in Kiev on Saturday night. In an interview with the UEFA official website ahead of the crucial game, the 25-year-old spoke about his childhood heroes, the Champions League dream and his favorite goal at the tournament.
“I don’t know what to say exactly, but to win the Champions League is something different. It’s something huge to win the Champions League. [Playing in the final is] a dream come true. Everyone is excited in the city and at the club. I remember two years ago, I watched the final back in Egypt and I saw what the atmosphere was like,” Salah said.
Salah, who enjoyed an impressive debut season at Liverpool and collected a number of individual trophies throughout the year, is looking to become the first Egyptian to win the Champions League trophy.
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He understands that 12-time winners Real Madrid, who are looking to win the trophy for the third year in a row, have a lot of experience in the tournament, but still thinks that they have equal chances in the game, as history doesn’t matter when it comes to a final.
“They are the team that has won this trophy more than anyone else. They’ve won the Champions League three times in the past four years, so they have a lot of experience.
They’ve won it before, but it’s one game, not two, so we just need to focus and not think about anything in the past. When you get to the game it’s just 11 against 11,” he added.
(Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)
Salah who scored 44 goals in all competitions this season and netted 10 Champions League goals, revealed that his favorite moment in the Champions League this season was his goal against Manchester City. The Egypt international scored Liverpool’s first goal in their 2-1 win over Manchester City in the second leg of the Champions League quarter-final as the Reds qualified with a 5-1 aggregate score.
The former Basel winger also said that he used to look up to Real Madrid boss Zinédine Zidane when he was a kid. “[Francesco] Totti, Brazilian Ronaldo, [Zinédine] Zidane. My thinking was to choose three players who were completely different to everyone else in the way that they play,” said Salah about his childhood heroes ahead of his clash with Zidane’s Madrid.
