“I’m not going to go the angle of who is the best player” – Steve Nicol offers interesting opinion while choosing between Real Madrid talisman Benzema and Liverpool’s Salah

Former Liverpool defender Steve Nicol has offered his opinion on who believes is more important to their team out of Real Madrid forward Karim Benzema and Reds winger Mohamed Salah.

The two European giants will meet in Paris on 28 May for the Champions League final. In doing so, Liverpool and Real Madrid will become the first pair to play against each other in three different European Cup finals.

With Salah and Benzema both front-runners for this year's Ballon d'Or, Nicol was asked by ESPN FC who he believes is the better player. The Scottish pundit replied:

"I'm going to go about it a different way. I think it's unfair to try and pick a better player, I'm going to go from the angle of; which one is more important for the team? There's no question that the answer to that is Benzema. You take Benzema out of Real Madrid, you're taking 50% out of what's good about them. If you take Salah out of Liverpool, then Liverpool can still win."

"I’m not going to go the angle of who is the best player. I'm going to go on the angle of who has the biggest impact. And there's no question that Benzema has a bigger impact for Real Madrid. And as important and as good as Salah is for Liverpool, I still think Liverpool can win without Salah."

Benzema has enjoyed his most successful campaign to date, having scored an incredible 43 goals in 43 games across all competitions, including 15 strikes in Europe.

The 34-year-old has only missed one game for the Spanish champions since mid-February, which was the side's 4-0 home defeat to Barcelona.

Meanwhile, Salah is currently at the top of both the Premier League goalscorer and assist provider charts this term. He has also netted 30 times across the current campaign but only once so far in the Champions League knockout stage.

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Liverpool and Real Madrid set for Champions League final rematch

The two historic sides met in the 2018 final in Kyiv. Madrid would win 3-1, thanks to two infamous errors from then-goalkeeper Loris Karius and Gareth Bale's incredible overhead kick screamer from the edge of the area.

The game is also remembered for an injury picked up by Salah after the Egyptian dislocated his shoulder following a tangle with Sergio Ramos.

Liverpool have found their journey to the final relatively comfortable, having brushed aside Inter Milan and Benfica before being given a scare against La Liga side Villarreal in the last four. Despite being 2-0 down in the second leg, Jurgen Klopp's side won the tie 5-2 to progress.

Madrid's road to Paris has been far more chaotic, having trailed for long periods in their knockout ties against PSG, Chelsea and Manchester City. The 13-time champions fought back in all of those clashes under dramatic circumstances to secure their spot in the final.