Champions League Final Preview
Europe's serial champions face an unlikely challenger at Wembley.
By Patric Ridge
It has been 11 years since Borussia Dortmund took on Bayern Munich in an all-German Champions League final at Wembley.
Dortmund, under Jurgen Klopp, lost that final 2-1 — Arjen Robben scoring an 89th-minute winner that put Bayern on their way to winning a treble that they sealed by beating Stuttgart to claim the DFB-Pokal.
In the intervening years, Bayern dominated the Bundesliga. Dortmund, on the other hand, have never been able to reach the same heights they scaled under Klopp. The title slipped out of their grasp at the death last season, and this term they were way off the pace set by Bayer Leverkusen.
And so few would have predicted that a team without any superstars — Jadon Sancho left in 2021, Erling Haaland in 2022 and Jude Bellingham last year — would reach the Champions League final.
Dortmund are returning to the scene of that defeat to Bayern over a decade ago, and will go up against Bellingham and his Real Madrid team-mates. There’s no Haaland, of course, but Sancho is back; the on-loan winger from Manchester United having rediscovered his form since his temporary switch back to BVB in January.
BVB have won the Champions League once before, back in the late 1990s. LaLiga champions Madrid, meanwhile, are gunning for a record-extending 15th European crown.
Los Blancos are the favourites, of course. In Vinicius Junior and Bellingham, they have two players who are definitely Ballon d’Or candidates.
Here, we look at the key storylines ahead of the Champions League final.
HEY JUDE
Birmingham City’s decision to retire Bellingham’s shirt number when the then-teenager departed for BVB drew plenty of raised eyebrows. It’s fair to say, they knew something we didn’t.
Bellingham’s career trajectory is the perfect example of a player — and his representatives — making all the right choices at all the right turns: Plenty of English clubs, including Manchester United, wanted Bellingham while he was at Birmingham, but he chose Dortmund, who promised a pathway into first-team football at the highest level.
After three years at Dortmund, Bellingham plucked for Madrid, and he had always wanted Madrid, despite the interest of Liverpool and Manchester City.
The narrative is also lining up nicely for Bellingham ahead of Saturday’s showdown.
Not only is he going up against his former club, but he will be out to strut his stuff at England’s national stadium, before he links up with the rest of the Three Lions’ squad ahead of Euro 2024. The last time Bellingham played at Wembley, he scored a last-gasp equaliser against Belgium.
Bellingham, who doesn’t turn 21 until the end of June, has scored 23 goals in all competitions in his maiden season at Madrid, and if he were to star in the Champions League final, surely the Ballon d’Or becomes more likely.
DON CARLO’S QUIET LEADERSHIP
Key to Bellingham’s development, and of course the success of Madrid overall, has been Carlo Ancelotti.
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