UCL final marquee matchup: Salah's trickery vs. Marcelo's positioning
If the outcome of the Champions League final was concluded by a comparison of coifs, penalties would be needed to determine the winner between charismatic pair Mohamed Salah and Marcelo.
Europe's premier competition prefers traditional means of resolution, and with the Liverpool talisman and Real Madrid full-back set to contest one of the matchup's marquee clashes, the outcome could depend on how the two fare against one another.
Swift Salah gives defenders headaches
Salah has been nightmare fuel for full-backs since returning to England's top flight. That form has extended to the continent, with the former Chelsea outcast joint-second alongside teammate Roberto Firmino on 10 goals in Europe.
Pace, combined with technically astute skills on the ball, make the Egypt international a massive threat in attack, and with a penchant for finding space and manipulating channels, Salah profits from vacancies. According to statistics savant Squawka, Salah is the fastest player in this year's Champions League at 33 km/h.
Pair this with a desire to drift in behind centre-halves, and Marcelo will need to slide into an interior role when necessary in support of Sergio Ramos and Raphael Varane. That will limit the Brazilian's virtues in surging forward.
This threat is made more likely by the fact that Liverpool's front-three thrives on organic movement, where Salah, Firmino, and Sadio Mane swap spots and benefit from fluidity and unpredictability. That front-three is the most prolific in Champions League history with 29 goals, one better than Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale, and Karim Benzema managed in 2013-14.
With an astounding 44 goals in all competitions this season, the PFA Player of the Year has proved he can score in any number of ways and as often as his team needs. Look no further than his Premier League-best 70-minutes-per-goal standard.
Marcelo's been there, done that
Pity the left-back tasked with containing Salah, especially the one who fancies helping out in attack. Marcelo certainly fits that profile. The full-back wears two hats, sometimes to a fault.
Where Marcelo gets burned is when facing speed or being caught too far up the pitch. Days after his 30th birthday, pace can abandon the 52-time capped international on occasion, especially when an attacker's central run requires the defender to take a diagonal path to the ball. This was on display against Juventus speedster Douglas Costa in the knockout stage.
While numbers and form appear to favour Salah, Marcelo is no stranger to performing at the highest level on the biggest stages. With 449 matches for the club over a dozen seasons, and 33 goals and 18 trophies to boot, questioning Marcelo's qualities is a fool's errand. And while he's displayed some deficiencies in defending of late, there's no room for doubting his contributions in attack.
Marcelo scored in each round of the knockout stage against league winners Paris Saint-Germain, Juventus, and Bayern Munich, and Real Madrid has won 32 of the 33 matches the jovial jester has scored in.
Saturday's final could very well be determined by which mass-mopped star ends up being a cut above.
(Photos courtesy: Getty Images)