Agencies
Madrid, May 26: As Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid continued to assure his fans that he will be ‘100 per cent fit’ for the Champions League final, May 28, Atletico Madrid players iterated that they will not make the same mistakes that they did two years ago at Lisbon when the two sides had clashed for the title.
Real will be looking to go one better than the ‘Decima’ (10 titles) they achieved while their Madrid rivals will be looking for their maiden win on European club football’s biggest stage.
Ronaldo had set alarm bells ringing Tuesday when he ended training prematurely with a knock but was fit to train again the following day.
“Cristiano always appears in the games that matter. I’ll be at 100 per cent. Saturday, I’ll be in better form than I was in Lisbon,” Ronaldo told Spanish TV channel ‘La Sexta’.
“In Lisbon, my hamstring was hurting me. It was pretty bad. It was terrible because you know that in certain moments you could give more but you can’t because your body doesn’t respond,” he added.
Ronaldo has scored – and been on the winning side – in both the Champions League finals he has played in, having also won in 2008 with Manchester United.
The talismanic Portuguese striker is top scorer in this season’s tournament with 16 goals and is one strike away from equalling the record tally of 17 he set in 2013/14.
Zinedine Zidane’s side however, will be without defenders Raphael Varane and Alvaro Arbeloa for the game, while Atletico have a clean bill of health.
Defender Diego Godin stated Wednesday that Atletico are in better shape than last time around, and his side’s team ethic, instilled into them by the charismatic Diego Simeone, could prove key to winning their first European Cup.
Godin told Uefa.com: “Our big secret is the effort we put in. The way the whole team work to help the defence is incredible.
“The forwards – Fernando Torres, Antoine Griezmann or Yannick Carrasco – are always with us, defending in our box. That shows how committed we are as a team, and how much we believe in our style of play.”
Meanwhile Atletico captain Gabi asserted that the Lisbon final result will not haunt them. “That time in 2014 we had too many ailing players. Diego Costa hobbled off after only nine minutes and Arda Turan never took the pitch. This time around, there are no such problems,” Gabi was quoted as saying by the local media.
“Moreover, when we played at Lisbon, the entire experience was new to us. We had never played in the Champions League final, but now we what it is all about,” added the Atletico skipper.
