Julius

The ugly side of Ramos. Quality defender, but he wasn’t even touched below the waist by Mané there.

That was a gem of a ball from Bale. Outside of the foot too.

Honestly, I think if you get a new ‘keeper and add some more depth, you’ve got a serious chance at challenging for the title next season.

Ramos has been seriously solid tonight. In fact, surprisingly so; that’s some excellent defending.

It was only a few weeks ago that Bale was supposedly being shipped around ahead of this summer’s transfer window. Equalised in El Clasico, a strong and consistent scoring streak since then, and now this. Strangely, I don’t see him leaving this summer anymore

WHAT A FINISH FROM BALE! Instant Champions League classic. It was only like his fourth touch of the game!

Poor showing from Isco, who’s normally so calm and clinical. I really do think that Liverpool are going to have problems slowing Bale down.

Of course Karius’ howler comes after I praise him for the finest save I’ve ever seen him make towards the end of the first half. If Klopp really wants a German GK that badly, why not go after the likes of Timo Horn or Bernd Leno?

Karius rolled the ball about a yard into Benzema’s path, who only had to redirect the ball - such was the force of Karius’ roll - into the back of the net. And then you equalised through Mané.

Think I might be a few minutes ahead, guys... That’s the greatest blunder I think I’ve ever seen in football, period. How did he not see Benzema out of the corner of his eye? On the other hand, great response...

What. The. Heck.

Liverpool are riding their luck right now...

Odd game so far. Liverpool started better, but Salah’s injury and subsequent substitution swung it in Madrid’s favour, at least until Carvajal got injured and came off too. Became a bit of a scramble before the last few minutes, when Madrid were clearly in the ascendency. Can’t think of a final in recent years like this, where the half-time team talks are set up to have a massive effect on the game for both sides.

That was an odd offside call. Ronaldo looked a margin offside (but I’ve seen plenty of linesmen give it the other way), but it looks like the linesman was giving it for Benzema being offside (who very clearly wasn’t, being in-line with Ronaldo when he heads it). That really could’ve gone either way. Best save I think I’ve ever seen Karius make.

84th minute, 4-1 up. Cuadrado is already on a yellow, goes to pass Ramos to get the ball for a throw-in, and very clumsily steps on his foot - but there’s clearly not much malice there. Ramos’ reaction?

Tell me about it. Remember what he did in last year’s final to get Cuadrado sent off, even though they were already clearly going to win the game?

Heartbreaking for Salah. This could definitely go either way now, considering the effect that could have in the psychology of the Liverpool players. Very classy of the Real players to show what looked like some genuine concern for him. I just hope he’ll be in good shape for Egypt at the World Cup now.

Yeah, Real’s levels of fitness all over the pitch has been the difference in most of their recent victories in Champions League finals. Not to mention the options that they have on the bench when it comes to attacking. Their defence is seriously fragile, and completely prone to mistakes. For all of the attacking records being broken these days, there’s been a serious lack of world class centre backs (your Maldinis and your Cannavaros) for a while now. I definitely think that you’re capable of finding a goal, and I think the timing of it - and who scores first - could decide the game’s flow. It’s surprising me just how sloppy they’ve been, especially that Kroos pass - you could really see that he was caught in two minds.

Really, really cagey start, by both sides. Have to say that Liverpool’s high press is working well for them so far, but I’m a little worried that they’ll try to sustain it for too long and run out of legs towards the end of the game.

Yeah, that’s a good point. I was actually going mention the current political strife between Spain and Catalonia, but didn’t think I wanted to get into the politics of it all too much it will be really interesting to see how well the Spain team gels at the World Cup this summer for the very reasons that you cited, though.

My problem with this is that, by the same logic, Atlético and Barça fans would want to see Real Madrid win tonight, just because the club is based in Spain. In a similar vein, I doubt that Milan, Inter or Torino fans were wanting Juve to win it last year because they’re from Italy too. As a Chelsea fan, I know that some wanted us to win the competition against Bayern back in 2012, but at the same time, I had fans of Arsenal and United hoping for a Bayern win that night. Rivalries are one of the largest aspects of sport, and given the long history of club football, I’m not too sure there’s that much to understand besides that. I’ve never had a problem with fans being from an area different to that of a club, considering just how easy it is to find some of yourself, or something interesting, in a team that you first see growing up. I’m a Chelsea fan, and I’ve been to Chelsea games, despite not being from/ever living in London. I first saw them on MOTD on a Sunday morning when I was around five years old, and my favourite colour at the time was blue, and I found myself enjoying watching football for the first time. I’ve supported them ever since.

As a neutral going into tonight’s game, I’ll be happy for either team to win; first and foremost, I want a good game of football. That being said, personally, as a neutral, but as someone who has a lot of passion for the sport and it’s history, I think it would be amazing for Real to win it again tonight. The last time a team won the competition - in any format - three times in a row was Bayern back in the early 70s. Though this Madrid team has been fairly inconsistent domestically over the last few years, at least when compared to other great UCL/European Cup-winning teams which won the premiere European competition consecutively, this is a team almost designed to perform solely in this competition. Real’s recent experience of winning the competition, coupled with their - and more specifically, Ronaldo’s - insatiable appetite to perform on Europe’s biggest stage, leads me to believe that they’ll win tonight.

To be distributed via Nintendo Network from June 1st to June 22nd for the UK.

Producer Daisuke Sato revealed some information about the remaster of Yakuza 3 during a recent interview with GNN.