You could be forgiven for feeling a sense of deja vu when Liverpool take on Real Madrid in the Champions League final at the Stade de France on Saturday.
The two European giants faced off in 2018 in Kyiv, with Los Blancos running out 3-1 winners thanks to, among other things, a sensational Gareth Bale overhead kick.
Four years later Liverpool and Madrid ready to battle it out to be crowned kings of the continent, with 19 European Cups/Champions Leagues already between them.
Just how much have the two teams changed since then, though? Stats Perform has taken a look at both to see if there are any similarities and marked differences to expect in Paris.
From nearly men to trophy collectors
One of the many reasons defeat in Kyiv hurt for Liverpool was it would have not just been another Champions League success, but the first trophy won since Jurgen Klopp had taken over.
The German coach had been at Anfield since October 2015, and while there had been clear progress, it had not yet manifested in the form of silverware.
The idea that the loss was merely a bump in the road on the start of a journey has since been proven correct, as Liverpool have since hoovered up a Champions League, Premier League, UEFA Super Cup, FIFA Club World Cup, EFL Cup and FA Cup.
At the time, though, it may not have felt that inevitable given the Merseyside club went into the final having finished fourth in the league, 25 points behind champions Man City, having also been knocked out of the EFL Cup in the third round and the FA Cup in the fourth round.
As well as making the final, the 2017-18 season was memorable for the Reds acquiring one Mohamed Salah, who went on to score 44 goals in all competitions.
They lost Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona in the January transfer window, but signed Virgil van Dijk from Southampton to help out a troubled defence.
The team that started against Madrid included at least six players you would think will start in Paris in Trent Alexander-Arnold, Van Dijk, Andrew Robertson, Jordan Henderson, Salah and Sadio Mane, while James Milner and Roberto Firmino will at least be on the bench.
It is perhaps the additions made that will make the difference this time, most notably in goal.
Loris Karius suffered a concussion after an elbow to the head from Sergio Ramos that night, which could explain his bizarre performance after that where he threw the ball straight onto Karim Benzema's foot for Madrid's opener, before dropping the ball into the goal from a Bale shot for their third.
Brazil international Alisson is a significant upgrade on Karius.
Instead of the... shall we say... enigmatic Dejan Lovren, Van Dijk will be partnered by either Joel Matip or Ibrahima Konate, both of whom have performed well with the big Dutchman this season.
Should they be fit, Thiago Alcantara and Fabinho will play with Henderson in midfield instead of Milner and Georginio Wijnaldum, while Luis Diaz will almost certainly play alongside Mane and Salah in place of Firmino.
Klopp only made two changes off the bench that night, with Adam Lallana replacing the injured Salah in the first half, while Emre Can also arrived in the second half with little impact.
He will likely have players such as Firmino, Milner, Diogo Jota, Naby Keita and, for one last time, Divock Origi to make the difference if needed in the French capital.
But overall, how much have they changed as a team since that season?
In all competitions in 2017-18, Liverpool averaged 2.39 goals for and 1.11 goals against per game, while making 584.18 passes per game.
They created 2.26 big chances per game, attempted 62.19 long passes per game and won possession in the final third on average 4.94 times per game.
Compare that to this season, they have averaged slightly fewer goals for with 2.37 per game, though have conceded just 0.76 per game, and made 624.55 passes per game, suggesting they control matches more than they used to.
They have created 2.43 big chances per game, and make fewer long passes with 57.13 per game, so are also maybe not quite as direct.
One of the more interesting stats is that they have been winning possession in the final third on average 7.32 times per game this season, significantly more than they did four years ago, so Madrid will be wary of that.
Speaking to Stats Perform, former Liverpool player and assistant manager Phil Thompson - who was captain of the Reds when they beat Madrid in Paris to lift the European Cup in 1981 - said he feels their added experience will help them this time.
"They're better equipped all round," he said. "We're better defensively. The back four, the goalkeeper, I do think all round we're more experienced now in the way we play with Sadio, Mo Salah, and Luis Diaz has brought a different element to our game."
Madrid back as Champions League experts
Back in 2018, Zinedine Zidane guided Los Blancos to their 13th European Cup/Champions League, but otherwise it was a pretty ordinary campaign.
They finished third in LaLiga, 17 points behind the champions Barcelona. They were also knocked out of the Copa del Rey at the quarter-final stage by lowly Leganes.
They just had a knack in the Champions League, though, and remarkably won their fourth in five years.
Similarly to Liverpool, you would imagine at least five of their starting XI in Kyiv will also start in Paris, with Dani Carvajal, Casemiro, Luka Modric, Toni Kroos and Benzema key men in Carlo Ancelotti's side.
Thibaut Courtois has replaced Keylor Navas in goal, while Eder Militao, David Alaba and Ferland Mendy will probably be the ones to take the places of Raphael Varane, Sergio Ramos and Marcelo.
It is up top where things have mainly changed though, and not just in personnel.
Isco has become a squad player, who will leave at the end of the season, while Cristiano Ronaldo has long since departed, paving the way for Vinicius Jr and Rodrygo to come in, while Benzema has drastically increased his output.
The France striker scored 12 goals in all competitions in 47 games in the 2017-18 season, but has bagged 44 in 45 this campaign.
As for the team overall, in 2017-18 they averaged just 2.14 goals for per game, and 0.91 against, creating 2.11 big chances per game.
Somewhat bizarrely, their goal averages both for and against are the same as Liverpool's were four years ago (2.39 goals for, 1.11 against per game), though they have increased their average of big chances created to 2.71 per game.
However, they have won LaLiga this season, in addition to the Supercopa de Espana, and somehow found their way past Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea and Manchester City to reach the final.
Looking at those numbers and what has been achieved since, it is fair to say that both teams have improved since their Kyiv meeting.
Klopp's men have gone from a relative also-ran in English football to one of the strongest teams in the world, and had it not been for City's incredible comeback against Aston Villa on Sunday, would be playing to complete a phenomenal and unprecedented quadruple on Saturday.
Madrid have taken back their place as the best in Spain, and whether it was through luck or determination, have toppled three of the best teams in the competition to make it here.
You would assume the match in Paris will be a closer affair than 2018, and as finals so often are, is likely to be decided by the fine margins.
With the strength of both teams, though, do not be surprised if this isn't the last time we are sat here preparing to do battle in Europe's showpiece club game in May.
Virtual reality could help improve heading skills amid new restrictions – study
Virtual reality could help footballers improve their heading without the repetitive head impacts from a ball, a new study indicates.
Players involved in a study at Manchester Metropolitan University’s Institute of Sport and its Department of Sport and Exercise Sciences demonstrated greater performance in ‘real world’ heading after training with a VR headset compared to a control group who did no training.
The VR group also reported greater self-confidence and efficacy in their heading compared to the control group, the study found.
The study, titled: ‘A preliminary investigation into the efficacy of training soccer heading in immersive virtual reality’, has been published in the journal Virtual Reality on Tuesday.
It provides some insights into how players may be able to improve heading technique amid restrictions on training.
Football Association guidelines advise against any heading training in under-12s, while a trial is ongoing in the current season and next season to eliminate deliberate heading completely from matches up to and including that age group.
At ages 12 and 13, heading should be limited to a single session of no more than five headers, and no more than 10 headers per session for children aged 14 to 17, according to FA guidance.
Even in adult football at all levels, players are advised to perform only 10 ‘higher force headers’ per training week, such as headers from crosses, corners, free-kicks and returning of goal kicks.
The exposure to heading has been limited because of concerns over the sub-concussive impact of repetitive heading on a player’s longer-term wellbeing.
The 2019 FIELD Study found professional footballers were three and a half times more likely to die of neurodegenerative disease than age-matched members of the general population.
“With increasing restrictions of heading exposure to professional and youth soccer, it is evident that alternative methods for training heading confidence and technique will be required while it remains an integral part of the game,” the VR paper concluded.
“The work presented here provides some initial evidence suggesting that immersive VR may have a place in any new approach to training this important skill.”
A group of 36 adult recreational-level players, made up of 30 men and six women, participated in the study in total.
The 36 were split into two groups of 18, with 16 men and two women in the control group who did not use the VR headsets between ‘real world’ heading sessions, and 14 men and four women in the VR group.
The VR group used the Oculus Quest 2 head-mounted display, with the Rezzil Player 22 application used to provide the VR football heading training.
Dr Ben Marshall, Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Psychology at the Manchester Metropolitan University Institute of Sport, said: “Our findings show that virtual reality (VR) based training can be used to improve real-world heading performance and that this method is more effective than not training the skill at all.
“This is important as current training guidelines recommend limiting the number of physical headers performed in training for all age groups due to the associated long-term risks to player health.
“Our findings suggest the inclusion of VR-based training could play an important role in developing football heading skills whilst reducing the number of real-world headers and sub-concussive head impacts that players need to be exposed to – which is really positive.”
Birmingham investment approved by EFL
The EFL has approved Tom Wagner’s imminent investment in Birmingham.
The American financier and his company, Knighthead Capital Management, has agreed to purchase a 45 per cent stake in Blues under Shelby Companies Limited.
Birmingham and Wagner still need the Hong Kong Stock Exchange to confirm the deal before it is officially completed with the club’s parent company, Birmingham Sports Holdings Limited, having been looking for investment.
A club statement read: “The English Football League (EFL) has today approved the acquisition of 45 per cent in the Club by Shelby Companies Limited and is now awaiting approval in accordance with the rules of Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
“This exciting announcement comes after the exchange of two signed Sale and Purchase Agreements (SPA) on Sunday, 7 May.
“Shelby Companies Limited is managed by American financier, Tom Wagner, who was in attendance at Blues’ final game of the 2022/23 Sky Bet Championship season against Sheffield United.”
New Cardiff boss Erol Bulut still haunted by Turkish earthquake
New Cardiff manager Erol Bulut says he and his family are still affected by the huge earthquake that devastated parts of Turkey four months ago.
Bulut was manager of Gaziantep until nine days before the destruction there on February 6, but he was still in the Turkish city – just 23 miles from the epicentre – when the 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit.
“It was four in the morning and we were sleeping, I felt my house shake,” Bulut said of the earthquake which killed over 50,000 in Turkey and left nearly another 10,000 dead in neighbouring Syria.
“My kids still have a thing about that, thinking that it’s shaking and shaking.
“The small villages around Antep (Gaziantep) were totally destroyed. We couldn’t go out.
“We couldn’t drive to Istanbul because the streets were destroyed. We made a plan to get out of there.
“My squad was living on the 20th floor and they were shocked more. I called my squad together and they slept for one night in my house.
“Thank God I arranged a private jet and we left from Antep the next day. An ex team-mate of mine, one from Fenerbahce, he died.
“Also an ex-coach who was also with me, he died, too. It was not easy. If I think about this I don’t feel well. It was not easy for my country.”
Former Turkey Under-21 international Bulut has signed a one-year contract with the option of another two should things go well in Wales.
The 48-year-old has enjoyed success in Turkey by guiding unheralded Yeni Malatyaspor and Alanyaspor into the Europa League.
He also had eight months in charge of Fenerbahce – during which time he signed Germany international Mesut Ozil from Arsenal – but was sacked in March 2021 with the Istanbul-based club third in the Super Lig.
Bulut arrives in the Welsh capital on the back of Cardiff finishing 21st in the Sky Bet Championship and employing three managers – Steve Morison, Mark Hudson and Sabri Lamouchi – during a troubled campaign.
But Bulut, who was approached by Cardiff in 2020 before becoming Fenerbahce manager, said: “I had a conversation with Vincent (Tan, club owner) two weeks ago via a Zoom call.
“Vincent already got promoted two times to the Premier League. Why not a third time? We will make everything possible.
“Last year was not so easy to keep in the league, but we don’t want to be in that position again. So we will have to work for that.”
Cardiff are currently working under a transfer embargo with the EFL as they cannot pay transfer fees for players until May 2024.
The club is challenging the EFL ruling but it is unlikely to be revoked during this summer’s transfer window.
Bulut, who has targeted eight to 10 summer signings and will now run the rule over Cardiff’s out-of-contract players, said: “We have some players in our hand.
“Some players we will have to discuss, I think seven have contracts finished. I have to see the players in training for the first 10 days.
“I think around eight to 10 (signings) can be possible.”
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