Roy Keane's opinion of Liverpool has come a long way during this season's Champions League. There was a point in November when he said that he wouldn't watch Jurgen Klopp's side if they were playing in his back garden. He would now surely, at least, draw the curtains to watch Mo Salah.
Back in September, following a 2-2 draw with Sevilla in the group stage, Keane staed that come the later stages of the competition, "the Real Madrids and all these boys, they'll be laughing at Liverpool."
Last night, speaking on ITV's Champions League highlights show, Keane showed the distance his appreciation for Liverpool has travelled. Though he considers Real Madrid to be favourites in the final, he only makes them "slight favourites".
"When you win a football match there's a great satisfaction when you play well. But to me it's just as good when you play badly and get a result," said the Ireland assistant manager.
The one word I use for Real Madrid and always fall back on is quality. They still have pure quality in their squad and that's why I fancy them as slight favourites in the final.
Keane believes May 26th will be a shootout in Kiev.
"I think that's exactly what's going to happen. Obviously it's slightly different as it's not over the two legs and there's different mentalities.
"We could look at Real Madrid tonight and pick holes in them, which we have done, but they'll be doing exactly the same with Liverpool.
"Look at Liverpool, the young right-back had a nightmare, the goalkeeper was poor. So Real Madrid will be rubbing their hands as much as Liverpool will be that's why it's such an intriguing game."
Holes in the Liverpool backline was the reason the 46-year-old gave earlier this season for believing they would not win any major trophies. The addition of Virgil van Dijk has patched some up but he still thinks there are frailties.
They've given some daft goals away, they've got into some bad habits.
Tonight and over the last couple of league games they've switched off a little bit and you want to go into the final with some sort of momentum behind them and they've just got to be careful.
Even tonight, a bit of pride has still got to kick in. I know they're celebrating but to lose four goals in a game should hurt you a little bit.
