Mohamed Salah has a score to settle with Read Madrid in Saturday's Champions League final in Paris.
"I want to play Madrid," Liverpool's top scorer said, when asked which team he preferred to face, minutes after Jurgen Klopp's side reached the final.
Salah clearly hasn't forgotten the 2018 final against Real in Kyiv and the painful moment in the first half when he tussled with Sergio Ramos and landed heavily on the ground, dislocating his left shoulder.
The wily Ramos appeared to pin Salah's right arm and roll the forward down to the turf and Salah left the field in tears.
He watched the rest of the match on TV in the dressing room as Liverpool, deprived of their most likely scorer, lost 3-1.
Four years later and Ramos is at Paris Saint-Germain but that didn't stop Salah from posting "we have a score to settle" on Twitter after Madrid joined Liverpool in the final by beating Manchester City.
"I think it is revenge time," Salah said in another interview. The man is on a mission.
Salah has just finished a Premier League season as the top scorer, either outright or tied, for the third time in his five years.
"Insane season," Klopp said of Salah, the soccer writers' player of the year in England and favourite to win the vote among his fellow professionals, too.
However, Klopp said that while he understands Salah's point of view about Real, he does not necessarily view things in the same way.
"It is clear it was a harsh night for us. It was really tough to take - the circumstances, the way we conceded the goals, the injury to Mo, a lot of things happened that night.
"I understand what Mo said, he wants to put it right, I want to put it right, but in Germany we say you always meet twice in life. So behave better in the first moment because you will meet again. You will get a reception, but don't talk about the reaction."
Klopp hopes midfielder Thiago Alcantara could be fit for the final. The Spain international missed training on Wednesday with an Achilles tendon injury but Klopp said it "was not that bad".
Captain Virgil van Dijk, who did not feature in either of Liverpool's final two Premier League outings, says he is definitely fit to play.
AP with PA
Australian Associated Press
