Guillem Balague
Spanish football journalist

This was supposed to be a dream seven days for Real Madrid.

Announce the signing of Kylian Mbappe - arguably the world's most coveted player - at the start of the week, and win the Champions League at the end of it.

That was the expectation from club president Florentino Perez, who had been ultra confident a deal for the World Cup-winning France forward would be done.

That Mbappe chose to stay at Paris St-Germain has not gone down well. The Madrid press have been apoplectic, to the point that in the early part of this week all coverage was about the non-deal rather than the small matter of Saturday's final against Liverpool.

The fallout has involved Karim Benzema courting controversy, but may actually end up being good news for some of the Bernabeu club's key players.

Either way, it has certainly not been the build-up to their bid for a 14th Champions League title that Real Madrid had been expecting.

Read the rest of Guillem Balague's thoughts on Real Madrid's preparations here.

Luke Reddy
BBC Sport

Image source, .

If you've visited Liverpool's Lark Lane you'll know there's no shortage of fun to be had as pretty much every building is a bar or increasingly fancy place to eat.

On Saturday night it will likely be a sea of people spilling out of one place or another as they graft to get near a screen to watch their team.

One pub has nailed its colours to the mast by placing flags outside and stencilling Jurgen Klopp into its windows.

Sunday morning will be a time for celebration, frustration, nursing hangovers and, seemingly... scraping paint off windows.

Enjoy the fun while it lasts one and all.

Sam: Best goal - Thiago vs Porto. Best game - any knockout stage game featuring Real Madrid at home. Player of the tournament - Benzema. Manager of tournament - Klopp. Shock result - Real Madrid vs Sheriff.

Image source, Getty Images

Luke Reddy
BBC Sport

Image source, .

As tourists or locals turn on to Penny Lane they may expect to see some kind of Beatles-themed decoration. There's the odd mural of the 'Fab Four' of course but as you turn on to the lengthy strip of L18 the first thing you are drawn to is this - 'All you need is Klopp' hangs outside a local bar.

Along the street made famous by The Beatles' 1967 song there are houses with posters in the window featuring Klopp's face, Mohamed Salah's face and there's the odd inflatable European Cup on show too.

The Reds are due to start their parade just around the corner at 1600 BST on Sunday. Locals will hope a real European Cup is on the bus and that Klopp's smile is as wide as it is in the many posters of him on show right now.

Earlier I told you we had a man on the ground in Paris. Well, we also have someone soaking up the atmosphere a lot closer to the River Mersey...

Yarmolenko's emotional reaction to scoring against Aston Villa in March against the backdrop of Russia's invasion of his homeland was one of the moments of the season.

West Ham are the latest club to announce their retained list, with skipper Mark Noble among those who will be leaving the club at the end of their contracts next month.

Ukraine winger Andriy Yarmolenko, goalkeeper David Martin and defender Ryan Fredericks will also be released.

Djimi Traore - Champions League winner.

The defender was part of the Liverpool team who staged THAT come back against AC Milan (managed by Carlo Ancelotti don't forget) in 2005

He reflects on that incredible game and how he believed it was Liverpool's "destiny" to lift the trophy.

Some breaking match venue news: England's Nations League tie against Italy in September will take place at Milan's iconic San Siro stadium.

John Gibbons from the Anfield Wrap podcast speaking to Radio 5 Live:

"We are definitely happier playing Real Madrid than Manchester City - there's lots of reasons for that. It's a bit more glamourous to play a team from the continent in a European Cup final. We played Spurs a couple of years ago and it was fine and the supporters got on really well in Madrid and it was all good. But it does dampen it a bit when it's a team that you play twice a season.

"With City it's a team that we often play even more because we meet in domestic cups and it is always stressful playing them. Plus, they are pretty good.

"So playing Madrid does take that edge off it a bit - if we do lose it will make it slightly more bearable."

Neil Atkinson from the Anfield Wrap podcast speaking to Radio 5 Live:

"Jurgen Klopp loves to enjoy opportunities - that's what this Liverpool side this season have done. 12 months ago we couldn't go to football matches still, the pandemic was still raging and the idea of enjoying the football in person wasn't possible. Liverpool were damaged by that last season but this season they have absolutely revelled in every moment.

"Every game has mattered, the drama of the Premier League on Sunday, it was stressful for a lot of people but what that meant was that everything was still live right up until the last minute of the season. Everything has been live right up until 120 in two finals and now everything is live in Europe as well and it's as though Klopp and this side have said that this is to be loved and cherished.

"One more big push on Saturday night."

BBC Radio 5 Live

BBC Radio 5 Live has been packed full of Champions League preview content this morning.

Here are some of the best bits...

Jonathan Jurejko
BBC Sport at Roland Garros

Bonjour from Paris mes amis!

For those of us here for the French Open tennis, we are relatively sheltered from the buzz building up in central Paris for the Champions League final.

However, while grabbing breakfast in a quiet south-west suburb this morning, I spotted this sign on a lamppost…

Image source, BBC Sport

The GCSE French is a bit rusty these days, but I think we can all catch the drift.

Don’t let the tennis crowd hear me say this… but tomorrow’s game at the Stade de France is clearly the hottest ticket in town.

For data protection I’ve removed the phone numbers (the BBC bosses will be pleased the training worked) but I can assure you they are French phones and not English or Spanish…

Meanwhile, we have a man on the ground with the latest Champions League ticket news.

"Bonjour Paris, this is Salford calling..."

Liverpool fans don't forget you can access all the breaking Reds content as we build up to the Champions League final on our Liverpool topic page by heading over here.

Make sure you come back though!

This is the important question - a solid 7/10 I'd say.

Not the content I expected to be watching this morning, but Tottenham's Harry Kane has been Stateside to appear on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon

The England captain told the US talk show host about his friendship with the NFL’s winningest player, Tom Brady.

“You’ve gotten to be friends with Tom Brady now right?” Fallon asked him.

“Yeah, I was kind of following him on Instagram, and he kind of commented on one of my pictures when I scored.”

“I slid into his DMs! No, he was a great guy. We kind of got talking. I’m an NFL fan, so I was kind of wishing him luck for the season and stuff and just grew a relationship from there really.”

Amongst other topics, the pair also discussed Kane training with the army marines on England duty and whether he could do a job as a kicker in the NFL (he thinks he could), as well as the Fifa. Apparently Fallon always plays with Kane in the game.

L'Equipe

French daily L'Equipe is also getting in on the act - with Benzema unsurprisingly featuring on their front page.

Image source, L'Equipe