Image source, Getty Images

Four-time Champions League winner Clarence Seedorf: "This is going to be a really interesting match. Two clubs with great history in the Champions League. Real Madrid of course being the biggest and best club in the world, winning the Champions League 12 times. What to say? They are favourites, I’m sure. I am of course a Madrid fan, I will be supporting them.

"But I think we need be watching Liverpool. I have played two finals against Liverpool, they also have that special touch when it comes to the Champions League. I’m looking forward to a wonderful battle.

"Liverpool are probably in better shape if you look back at how they performed during the season, but Real Madrid in the Champions League have always been special."

Mark Lawrenson
BBC Sport football expert

Image source, Getty Images

The clever thing was they went to Marbella for four days. If you are at home, it is Champions League final every single day and I think being away from that will have been good for the players.

Whatever you do, you can't take away from the fact it is just a massive, massive game. But it is a bit like chucking a young kid into a team, he doesn't know what fear is and that is what Liverpool could be like.

Kev Geoghegan
Music News LIVE reporter

What a year it's been for Dua Lipa.

Two Brit Awards, a number one single with Calvin Harris, one of the Live Lounges of the century with an all-star girl group, and now she is performing on the Kiev pitch.

"It's really exciting," she said in an exclusive Music News LIVE chat.

"We did a run-through rehearsal and even though the stadium was empty it's still terrifying.

"I don't know how it's going to feel when there are thousands of people inside and millions watching at home."

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp speaking to BT Sport: "We came here with a specific plan and now it makes no sense if we don’t play it again. It will be very intense. Everyone can feel the size of the game, the art is to see it as a normal football game, only a very important one and I hope we can do that.

"We always do that. We try to play and press from the first second of game. In the first 15 minutes of the game against Roma it was completely open.

"We don’t need an early goal after two minutes. We cannot unsettle them like that. We need to be stable from the first second.We have to play when we have the ball and we will be defending for our life when they have the ball."

On Gareth Bale: "Bale could’ve played of course. If you see the bench of Madrid - they could have probably qualified for the Champions League final as well."

Here's a reminder of the teams.

Real Madrid are unchanged from last year's final - the first time a team has started two different European Cup finals with the exact same 11 (excluding replays).

The Spanish side have more game-changing options on the bench.

Real Madrid: Navas, Carvajal, Varane, Sergio Ramos, Marcelo, Modric, Casemiro, Kroos, Isco, Benzema, Ronaldo. Subs: Casilla, Nacho, Bale, Hernandez, Lucas, Asensio, Kovacic.

Liverpool: Karius, Alexander-Arnold, Lovren, van Dijk, Robertson, Milner, Henderson, Wijnaldum, Salah, Firmino, Mane. Subs: Mignolet, Clyne, Klavan, Moreno, Lallana, Can, Solanke.

Referee: Milorad Mazic (Serbia)

Phil McNulty
BBC Sport chief football writer in Kiev

The Champions League final opening ceremony is always one of the more, shall we say, unusual elements of the occasion - what delights have Uefa got in store?

Lots of shiny silver outfits and thudding music for a start. And undoubtedly followed by something that will be the product of a zany mind.

Ukraine and Dynamo Kiev legend Andriy Shevchenko brings the Champions League trophy out onto the pitch.

Image source, Getty Images

Former Liverpool & Real Madrid manager Rafa Benitez on BBC Radio 5 live:

"He’s a good friend, he’s a great manager, and he is doing really well. He has the passion that he puts in everything. This is something that is driving the players to the final, and I don’t know if they can win with that but I think he’s a great manager doing a great job.

"We have different approaches but the reality is the fans, the players were working so hard during our time and they are doing the same now so that is very similar. And I think it is because they have this passion in their heart."

Image source, BBC Sport

Liverpool striker Mohamed Salah is valued at £148m by CIES Football Observatory, £54m more than four-time Champions League winner Cristiano Ronaldo.

Guillem Balague
Spanish football journalist on BBC Radio 5 live

This is the most romantic final you could have. It's magic. This has been a memorable journey for both Real Madrid and Liverpool.

Both Jurgen Klopp and Zinedine Zidane come from different backgrounds but difficult backgrounds and that's what makes them tough.

Image source, EPA

Steve Parry
Olympic bronze medal swimmer on BBC Radio

I would have swam there if I had to!

My journey was easy. I was out at the Gold Coast to do commentary on the Commonwealth Games and while there I actually fancied Liverpool to beat Manchester City so I booked my flight for the final 10 minutes before the game. The hardest thing had been getting match tickets, I managed to get one on Wednesday.

I am so nervous but I do think Liverpool have a great chance. Ronaldo is stressing me out though.

Mark Hayes: Hayes clan watching in sunny beach Bulgaria. YNWA

Image source, Mark Hayes

David Ornstein
BBC Sport in Kiev

Not sure how the Liverpool fans have any energy - let alone their voices - left after the noise they’ve been making across Kiev all day, but they’re making an incredible racket inside the Olympic Stadium as the last few seats in their section are taken.

The Reds are comfortably out-singing their Real counterparts, whose areas are still only sparsely populated. Some performing artists are now making their way out on to the pitch - perhaps that will lift the Madridistas!

Barely a game goes by without Cristiano Ronaldo setting a new landmark.

His feats this season have included scoring in 13 consecutive matches (24 goals in total during that run) and becoming the first player to find the net in every group match in a Champions League season.

His tally of 15 in the competition in 2017-18 is five more than closest rivals Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah, and he needs two more in the final to match his own record of 17 in a single campaign, set in 2013-14.

Win today and he is the first player to win the trophy five times in the Champions League era. He would join an elite four-man list featuring Real Madrid trio Paco Gento, Alfredo di Stefano and Jose Maria Zarraga plus AC Milan's Paolo Maldini as five-time winners of the European Cup.

There are other records, too, that Ronaldo can set in Kiev. He has already scored more Champions League final goals than anyone else (four) and can become the first player to score in consecutive finals.

He is already the only man to score in three different finals (2008, 2014 and 2017).

Read more here.

Image source, .

Jurgen Klopp believes Liverpool's "desire, attitude and work-rate" can help them beat "experienced" 12-time European champions Real Madrid.

"Real Madrid are more experienced," said Klopp. "Experience is important in life but it is not the only thing."

"You can level it with desire, attitude and work-rate, and that is why I love football."

"We will try in a very positive way to show the boys why it makes so much sense to be really brave. It was not easy to be brave against Manchester City, it was not easy to be brave against Roma. But the boys did it."

Image source, Ben Evans/Huw Evans Agency

Former Liverpool player and Real Madrid manager John Toshack says his heart believes the Reds will win the Champions League.

The 69-year-old has allegiances with both clubs having twice managed the Spanish giants, including in 1989 when he lead them to the La Liga title.

"From a neutral's point of view I'm really looking forward to it," he said. "With the players on show it has every opportunity to be a classic. I'm just hoping it's 90 minutes of great entertainment and Liverpool lift the trophy at the end."

Chris Waddle
Ex-England winger on BBC Radio 5 live

I can't remember ever going on the training ground at Marseille and working on a system. It was all off the cuff stuff. Real Madrid sign top class players and let them go out and play. They will lose games but they will win trophies as well because they are that good.

Mark Lawrenson
BBC Sport football expert in Kiev

In January, the day after Liverpool sold Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona, if you'd said that Liverpool would get to the Champions League final and had a chance of winning it you'd have said 'which planet have you just landed from?'

Jurgen Klopp is one of those managers who you think 'I really could play for you'. There aren't too many of those around.

I'm told players come in at half-time half expecting him to go mad and he doesn't. There are other times they come in expecting him to go 'that's brilliant' and he goes mad. He's just got everybody on their toes.

Image source, Rex Features

Jonathan Jurejko
BBC Sport at Roland Garros

Image source, BBC Sport

Is that a nervous smile? Not yet, according to Britain’s leading male tennis player Kyle Edmund.

Edmund is a huge Liverpool fan, although his mind is understandably focused elsewhere... the not-so-small matter of the upcoming French Open.

“I’ll be nervous when I sit down for the match for sure, but not now,” he says after talking to the British tennis media.

Edmund will be taking time out from his preparations to watch the game in a Paris hotel - as will leading female player Caroline Wozniacki, also a fanatical Red.

It could be a lively evening if Real fans Rafa Nadal and Feliciano Lopez are watching in the same hotel bar...

Liverpool

Image source, Getty Images

Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson says a speech by manager Jurgen Klopp after a cup final defeat inspired them to reach this final.

Henderson was an unused substitute as Sevilla beat the Reds 3-1 in the 2016 Europa League final.

"He looked at the bigger picture and the future, and he felt it could be a big moment in our careers to learn from the experience," said Henderson.

"He wanted to use the experience of that final to keep us together and use it as a positive. If we got to another final we would be ready.

"At that moment I sensed that he could see that he was confident about getting to another final.

"I definitely remember that night. I think you can see how he has taken the team forward since then has been fantastic.

"He has created a special dressing room with special players."