Former favourite pleads for Liverpool to show better game management

European Cup winner David Fairclough wants Liverpool to show better game management in tonight’s showpiece with Real Madrid.

Fairclough lifted the trophy with the Reds in 1977 and 1978 and thinks if his old side are to get anything out of the defending champions in Kiev, they will need to be smarter.

They weathered comebacks from Manchester City and Roma in the two previous rounds but Fairclough hopes they can handle such events better come kick-off on Saturday.

“When they’ve been in situations where Liverpool teams of the past would have pulled down the gates, the situations against Manchester City and Roma… players from past teams would have handled it better and that’s where I have a little bit of worry,” he said.

Huddersfield manager David Wagner is confident his best friend Jurgen Klopp will win the Champions League final.

Wagner is in Kiev to support the man he previously worked under at Borussia Dortmund and believes they can prevail against 12-time winners Real Madrid.

“I wish Jurgen all the best from the bottom of my heart that he can win this trophy,” he told Press Association Sport.

“We have texted a few times in the last week, of course we did, but in the end he knows everything he has to do and I am sure his team will be on fire tonight.

“We have to give big credit to him and his staff because I think the players are very well prepared mentally and physically, which is very difficult after such a long season.

“This is the last game of a very long season and they are able to perform in the big games as well and this is where he has his absolute strength.

“He is able to deliver an atmosphere where everyone is relaxed but focused enough and this is why I am pretty confident they have a chance.”

Liverpool fan Kyle Edmund will take time out from his French Open preparations to watch the final.

The British number one plans to cheer the Reds on in a bar close to his Paris hotel.

Edmund, who watched at home as a 10-year-old when Liverpool lifted the trophy in 2005, feels Klopp’s side have every chance of repeating the feat.

“It’s a final, against a pretty good team,” he said.

“But I think it helps that it’s a one-off game, that occasion, it will help us a bit more.”