Real Madrid should be fearful in Champions League final, not Liverpool, say Dejan Lovren and Sadio Mane

Zinedine Zidane’s side will be considered favourites at the Olimpiyskiy Stadium but must be wary of Liverpool – the competition’s top scorers

Sadio Mane scored against Roma in the semi-final (Getty Images)

Dejan Lovren and Sadio Mané believe Real Madrid, not Liverpool, should be fearful ahead of the forthcoming Champions League final.

Lovren, Mané and their Liverpool team-mates secured their place in the Kiev showpiece by preventing Roma from staging another sensational Stadio Olimpico comeback.

Though Jurgen Klopp’s side lost 4-2 on the night, first-half goals from Mané and Georginio Wijnaldum allowed saw the visitors to the Eternal City progress 7-6 on aggregate.

Their victory sets up a date with 12-time winners Madrid on 26 May in the Ukrainian capital, when the Spanish giants will look to lift the European Cup for a third year running.

Zinedine Zidane’s side will be considered favourites at the Olimpiyskiy Stadium but must be wary of Liverpool – the competition’s top scorers and a team confident of beating any opponent in a one-off game.

Lovren described reaching the final as “unbelievable” and “something that every player dreams of doing”, but the Croatian defender is more than confident that he and his team-mates can now go and beat a well-fancied Madrid.

“Any team, you need to play against the best teams, but the best teams are us and Real Madrid,” he said. “Let’s see what will happen.

“They are quite confident. But we don’t care for that, we are focused on our job,” Lovren added. “Why should we fear them? They should fear us.”

Dejan Lovren described reaching the final as ‘unbelievable’ (AFP/Getty Images)

Mané was almost as bullish after the final whistle on Wednesday, and was in doubt whether Liverpool believe they can claim Madrid’s scalp and with it, the club’s sixth European Cup.

“Yes, honestly we do,” he said. “I can say at this moment, we do have a lot of respect for Madrid, they are one of the best teams in the world, but we are Liverpool – we are strong, we can beat any team in the world. We believe that. So we believe we can go there and beat them.

Mané added: “We know we are going to go there and fight – for the fans, for the clubs – and fight without fear.. and win the final. We have the players. We can score goals, we have shown that, and there is nothing to be afraid of for us.”

If Liverpool are to triumph in Kiev, they cannot be as porous as they were in Rome. Radja Nainggolan scored twice in the closing stages – once from range and once from the penalty spot – to put Roma within just one goal of forcing extra time.

Had a handful of refereeing decisions fallen Roma’s way earlier in the game too, the night could have been a miserable one for Liverpool. “It was difficult in the last 10-15 minutes,” Lovren admitted. “Our heads I would say were in the final already, that is why we conceded, but let’s enjoy now.”

Mané also saw room for improvement. “I do believe we should do better in that second half. It was not so good and after half time, it was a little bit difficult because we did not play so well. But that is football, it can change at any time,” he said.

“We came through it, we have our dream still, we are going to go and work hard for this kind of moment – where we can be more clinical and concentrate harder.”

Lovren’s partner in the centre of defence, Virgil van Dijk, was more blasé about the collapse that could have been and reacted to questions about refereeing decisions with a casual: “Who cares?”

For the Dutchman, signed from Southampton during the winter, his journey from relegation battle to the Champions League final is more important than worrying about what might have been.

“I watched the Champions League final last year in Cardiff with a very good friend of mine so to be in the final now is special,” he said. “We are not going there to lose. We know we have a lot of quality and they need to be wary of what we can do.”