UEFA Champions League - Final: Liverpool & Spurs set for title match in Madrid

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Europe

03:18

The final countdown for European football's biggest night has begun. This year's Champions League Final is an all-English affair between Liverpool and Tottenham at Madrid's Wanda Metropolitano Stadium. And with tens of thousands of fans already arriving, the host city has gone all out. Filio Kontrafouri is there for us in the Spanish capital.

It's the ultimate dream, for the ultimate game, for as many as 70,000 British fans. Hordes of Liverpool and Tottenham supporters are descending on Madrid from all over the world ahead of Saturday's game, and they seem undeterred by whopping hotel and flight prices, on top of a lack of tickets.

"From Norway. We paid about 2,000 pounds to get here."

The center of Spain's capital, one big party in red and blue. Concerts, fan zones, competitions, and lots of beer keep fans entertained throughout the UEFA Champions League Festival. Still, European football's governing body has faced criticism for providing too few tickets collectively to the two clubs for the game, 34,000, in a stadium with double that capacity.

FILIO KONTRAFOURI MADRID "Tens of thousands of fans are making it to Madrid without tickets, with many still looking everywhere for one. Some are so desperate to secure a chance to get inside the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium that they are willing to pay over 2,000 euros, that's about over 2,300 dollars, for the magic ticket."

The teams themselves arrived on different days, with Liverpool choosing to land just a day ahead of the big event. This is the first time in football history that both major European Club Finals have been contested by teams from the same country. A shift in European football power from Spain to England? Sports journalist Juan Castro is not convinced.

JUAN CASTRO MARCA NEWSPAPER JOURNALIST "I don't think so. The fact that it is just one year after so many years, five or six years of Spanish team dominating the competition, I don't think it is the time to say, okay, this is the change."

Tottenham, like their opponents, got to the final in dramatic fashion. The London club has huge respect for last year's Champions League Finalists.

MAURICIO POCHETTINO TOTTENHAM MANAGER "Liverpool is a great team, I think with Manchester City, they are the best team in England."

Liverpool is considered the favorite, but German coach Jürgen Klopp is taking nothing for granted.

JUERGEN KLOPP LIVERPOOL MANAGER "We can work for advantages for like you can work for spaces, like you can work for opportunities in this game tomorrow, but you have to do it in the game. Nothing in the moment. Not possible."

Authorities have launched a massive operation to secure what they call a "high-risk" event -- in a country that already sets its terror alert at "Level 4" on a scale of five, an unprecedented number of policemen and security personnel are deployed across the city, with the stage set for the all-English encounter, here, in the heart of Spain. Filio Kontrafouri, CGTN, Madrid.