Mohamed Salah has said Liverpool have a “score to settle” with Real Madrid after the Spanish side set up a repeat of their 2018 Champions League final by securing a comeback win against Manchester City.
Salah left the field in tears in the final four years ago after a heavy fall under a challenge by Sergio Ramos, with Real going on to clinch the title with a 3-1 victory. “We have a score to settle,” Salah posted on social media after Real eliminated City 6-5 on aggregate.
Liverpool claimed their place in the final with a 5-2 aggregate win against Villarreal on Tuesday, with Salah saying that he was eager to face Real again. “I want to play Madrid,” the forward told BT Sport. “We lost in the final against them, so I want to play against them and hopefully win it from them as well.”
Liverpool, who trail City by a point in the Premier League, host Tottenham on Saturday. City play at home to Newcastle on Sunday and Pep Guardiola has said his players will need time to come to terms with their fate after Madrid’s dramatic late recovery to knock them out.
“We need one or two days but we will rise, we will come up,” City’s manager said. “We will have to do so, with our people. We did everything we could. We were really, really close but in the end we could not do it.”
Asked whether this was his hardest European night as a coach, Guardiola replied: “I have had bad defeats in the Champions League before. [Such as] Barcelona against Chelsea when we played two exceptional games and couldn’t make the final. But, yeah, it’s tough. We can’t deny it.”
