AFRICAN STAR POWER ON DISPLAY AT UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL THIS SATURDAY

WINDHOEK, 30 MAY, Windhoek – The power of Africa is going to be on full display when the biggest club competition in the world concludes on Saturday 1 June as Liverpool take on Tottenham Hotspur in the final of the UEFA Champions League (UCL).

DStv and GOtv continue to deliver the best in football and will broadcast the highly anticipated match this weekend to all active DStv customers and those on the GOtv Max and Plus packages!

African flair is sure to dazzle the 67 000-plus football fans packed inside the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium in Madrid with a host of African players on display, who could ultimately decide the fate of where the biggest trophy in European football ends up.

Liverpool boast a trio of African players in Egypt’s Mohamed ‘Mo’ Salah, Senegal’s Sadio Mane and Cameroon’s Joel Matip – and all will play a vital part in leading the Reds to what would only be their second UEFA Champions League title.

Mane and Salah are the most likely candidates to find a goal while Matip will be relied on to keep it tight at the back.

For the full UCL experience, viewers can tune into SuperSport 3 (DStv Channel 203) while SuperSport 10 (DStv Channel 210), Select 2 (GOtv channel 32) will offer an exciting array of programming including half hour highlights of the four semi-final games; the official UEFA Champions League preview show at 19:00 CAT; the studio build up including crossings from Madrid at 19:30 CAT; and then the LIVE match from 21:00 CAT.

Mo Salah:

The Egyptian forward has a score to settle with the Champions League final, as a year ago, in the match against Real Madrid, he suffered a serious shoulder injury which not only ended his match early, but also affected his World Cup campaign with the Pharaohs in Russia.

Salah will be determined to add to his goal tally in the Spanish capital in what has been a rather disappointing UCL campaign for him. He has featured in 11 UCL games, scoring only four goals and providing two assists in his 968 minutes on the field.

Still, the Egyptian has shown he is a real threat in attack, and this was underlined in the English Premier League campaign this season where he finished as the co-top goal scorer with 22 strikes. The 26-year-old is almost certain to start in the final and remains one of the most potent attacking forces in the world.

Sadio Mane:

Mane has been Liverpool’s most consistently excellent attacking player through the season, with his return of 22 goals in the English Premier League reflecting just how much he has sharpened up his efficiency in the final third of the field this season as he finished joint top scorer.

The man from Senegal has been the top African player in the English game this season as he proved to be a driving force behind the Reds’ superb attacking flair with the 27-year-old playing in 12 UCL matches where he scored four goals and provided three assists.

With his pace and eye for goal, Mane is set to give the Spurs’ defence a tough evening in the final.

Joel Matip:

Matip’s job is less glamourous than Mane or Salah’s, but his is just as important as he will be looked at to keep the Spurs attack at bay.

Playing in the heart of the Liverpool defence this season the Cameroonian international has shown himself to be rocksteady and solid, often breaking up threatening attacks from opponents with his reading of the game and no-nonsense tackling.

The 27-year-old has not featured as much as he would have liked in the UCL this season with only seven games under his belt, but he is likely to start the final against Spurs.

Tottenham’s Serge Aurier and Victor Wanyama:

As any SuperSport viewer can attest, neither Ivory Coast’s Serge Aurier nor Kenya’s Victor Wanyama have been prominent players in Spurs’ UCL campaign this season.

While Aurier is vastly experienced, the right-back has only featured in five UCL games this season (totalling 435 minutes of playing time) while Wanyama has had even less playing time with only 292 minutes on the field in six matches.

Wanyama, though, as a defensive midfielder is more likely to get game time in the final as he will be expected to keep the menacing pair of Mane and Salah quiet while Aurier is probably going to watch the whole spectacle from the bench.

Skip the FOMO around this star-studded African affair between Spurs and Liverpool from Madrid, visit the DStv or GOtv websites to subscribe or reconnect to any of the DStv or GOtv packages today!

The football action will continue for DStv and GOtv even after the final of the UCL when the much-anticipated 2019 Africa Cup Nations kicks off on 21 June on SuperSport with African football talent taking centre stage once again.

For more information on the unmatched football on DStv and GOtv and the upcoming fixtures, visit www.supersport.com

NDN Staffer