Why the 2018 Champions League Final Could Be The Biggest Game In Liverpool History

Liverpool have played in seven previous Champions League finals, winning five of them. They were all extremely important games. 2018 will prove to be no different, Liverpool will try to return to the ranks of Europe's elite as they face Real Madrid. It is a daunting task, but it might just be the biggest game in Liverpool history.

Jurgen Klopp has made tremendous progress in charge of this Liverpool side. They finally look like a team with a solid backbone and world-class players again, just like the old days. The squad is young and hungry for success and they have a chance to win their first trophy together.

Klopp himself has said that the first trophy you win together is the hardest one. After winning one trophy, a team is hungry for more. They go for more trophies with a higher sense of togetherness and experience. Once that first league or cup victory is out of the way, it generally forms a winning mentality within the team, and the players will want to do it again.

The German manager has done wonders at Liverpool but a trophy will be required to validate his reign as manager. He has already lost two cup finals in his first eight months as Liverpool manager.

Klopp, as a manager, does not have a very good record in cup finals. He has only won the 2012 German Cup and has lost all of his other finals. This is an opportunity to redeem himself and prove that he is one of the greatest managers in world football.

This Liverpool team, judging by their team spirit, will have the same core and backbone for many years to come. This is a chance to get their first trophy of many. Victory on Saturday will install the belief that they can beat anyone and do anything.

This squad is so young, but have already become so mature and experienced. They will spend many years in the upper reaches of English and European football, especially with the special bond created between the manager, the players, and the supporters.

The adoring Liverpool fans will spur the team on in Kiev.

The squad that Jurgen Klopp has built is strong enough to challenge for every trophy possible, as shown by the Champions League run this season. A Champions League winners medal would do a whole lot of good for each and every player and their confidence.

This will drive them on to repeat the feeling and win more trophies as a team. Every world-class team has a period of a few years where they have the right squad and are consistent in winning trophies.

A win on Saturday could propel this young group of players to the next level, and they could possibly have a run which is almost as good as Liverpool's amazing spell in the late 1970s and early 1980s. This feels like the old days.

However, losing the final does not mean that the dream is over or that the project is closed. This is just the perfect chance to end the six year trophy drought, with the biggest club trophy there is. A losing effort will not be disastrous, only temporarily detrimental.

Liverpool’s season can already be labelled as a success, no matter what happens in Kiev. The league target was to finish in the top four and they did, with similar points as last season.

The Reds were hoping for a decent run in Europe but what happened blew everyone away. The fans might have believed but nobody really thought that Liverpool would reach the Champions League final in their first season back.

There have been many seasons, whose success was to be gauged on a cup final at the end of the season. The 2015-16 season, for example, saw the Europa League as the only saving grace of the season.

The Reds finished eighth in the league that season, and needed Europa League success to win a trophy and qualify for the Champions League. That season turned out to be a failure because Liverpool had a bad league campaign and failed to win a trophy. A similar situation could have transpired in 2005.

Liverpool had to win the Champions League to play in the next season's competition. They had finished fifth in the league and did not have that strong a squad. Steven Gerrard was on the brink of leaving the club for Chelsea.

Had Liverpool lost the final in Istanbul, they wouldn't have made it to the Champions League the next season, and Steven Gerrard would have left for Chelsea. Their future hinged on this match and it was all or nothing for Rafa Benitez.

The 2005 Champions League victory saved Liverpool from a potential downfall.

Liverpool were 3-0 down at half-time against AC Milan, and were staring humiliation and obscurity in the face. But in a crazy six-minute spell, the Reds fought back and brought it to 3-3. After winning the penalty-shootout, Liverpool lifted the Champions League trophy.

As a result, they stayed in the competition for next season, and their captain was not going anywhere. The Reds went on to have their most successful phase in recent history, as they consistently finished in the top three or four in the Premier League and were regulars in the latter stages of the Champions League.

However, the team does not have any trophies to show for it. They always came close but never won the big ones.

Liverpool have a chance to go one step further in Kiev. They could rectify the previous mistakes of the Rafa era. Klopp has been a revolutionary for Liverpool, but the only way in which he will be regarded as a success is if Liverpool start winning trophies.

This could be the start of something very special at Anfield and Liverpool Football Club. This group of players can write themselves into the Liverpool history books and be a part of an extremely successful period in the club's glorious history.