This weekend, the final matches of the season - cup finals - will take place in five European TOP football countries (England, Spain, Italy, Germany, and France). In this section, Eurofootball.com presents a preview of the upcoming "DFB Pokal" and "Coppa Italia" finals that will take place on Saturday. "DFB Pokal": "Bayern" - "Borussia" Road to the final: "Bayern": 1st round: against "FC Nottingen" - 3-1; 2nd round: against "Wolfsburg" - 3-1; 3rd round: against "Darmstadt" - 1-0; Quarterfinals: against "Bochum" - 3-0; Semifinals: against "Werder" - 2-0. "Borussia": 1st round: against "Chemnitzer" - 2-0; 2nd round: against "Paderborn" - 7-1; 3rd round: against "Augsburg" - 2-0; Quarterfinals: against "Stuttgart" - 3-1; Semifinals: against "Hertha" - 3-0. Team forms: Throughout the season, as well as at the end of the season, "Bayern" scattered points sparingly in the German championship. In the last ten matches, they only lost four points, and after falling out of the Champions League, they ended the Bundesliga with two consecutive victories. "Borussia" did not have such a successful end to the season, but Dortmund's footballers can be understood - the last two matches were already meaningless for them. However, in those two matches where "Borussia" only won one point, almost all the main players of this team were in place. Team losses and returns: The Spanish players Javi Martinez and Xabi Alonso, recovering from minor injuries, are already healthy and will travel with the team to the final match. Bayern will only miss long-term injured players Holger Badstuber and Arjen Robben. Marco Reus missed training on Monday due to illness, but the player has already recovered and is preparing with the team for the cup final. Shinji Kagawa, who trained individually, should also be ready to appear in Saturday's match. Borussia will definitely be without defenders Neven Subotic and Joo-Ho Park, as well as midfielder Ilkay Gundogan. What coaches said before the match: "We came here to win. Today, the two best teams of the whole season will face each other. I am proud of the stability of my players - over the past three years, we always reached at least the semifinals and twice made it to the final. Without a doubt - we want to win. My team is always hungry, even though it was difficult to maintain after winning the "treble." This is the final and it will be a special match. I want to thank my players for getting us here. We will fight once again to win this title," - Goal told Bayern coach Pep Guardiola. "This season, we did not try to run away from what Klopp was doing. We didn't try to be different. We just tried to help the team improve and do it our own way. The most important thing is to pay attention to what the players have achieved. In order for the team to reach the next level, there must be mutual understanding between the coaches and the players. We do not agree that we will be underdogs in these matches. We want to win," - Borussia coach Thomas Tuchel talked about the season. Predicted lineups: "Bayern": Neuer; Lahm, Benatia, Boateng, Alaba; Xabi Alonso; Douglas Costa, Muller, Vidal, Ribery; Lewandowski. "Borussia": Burki; Piszczek, Sokratis, Hummels, Schmelzer; Castro, Weigl, Kagawa; Mkhitaryan, Aubameyang, Reus. Key facts before the match: In the last five matches between these two teams, Borussia celebrated victory only once - in last year's cup semifinals, when they defeated Bayern after a penalty shootout. Borussia has reached the DFB Pokal final for the third consecutive season and the fourth time in the last five years. However, they only rejoiced in trophies in the 2011-2012 season, when they defeated Bayern in the final; Bayern holds two tournament records - reaching the final 21 times and winning 17 titles. Meanwhile, Borussia has reached the final for the eighth time in its history, and out of the past seven, they have won three times; In their last three cup matches, Bayern kept their goal dry; Borussia is the most scoring team in these competitions and scored 17 goals in five matches - an average of 3.4 per game; Before the final, it was announced that Borussia defender Mats Hummels will move to today's opponents after the season. The player who spent nine seasons in the team played a total of over three hundred matches for the Dortmund team. "Coppa Italia": Milan - Juventus Road to the final: Milan: 3rd round: against "Perugia" - 2-0; 4th round: against "Crotone" - 3-1* after extra time; 5th round: against "Sampdoria" - 2-0; Quarterfinals: against "Carpi" - 2-1; Semifinals: against "Alessandria" - 1-0, 5-0. Juventus: 5th round: against "Torino" - 4-0; Quarterfinals: against "Lazio" - 1-0; Semifinals: against "Inter" - 3-0, 0-3, after penalty shootout 5-3. Team forms: Having earned just five points in the last five matches in the Italian championship, Milan remained seventh in Serie A, a position that meant they did not fight for a spot in Europe in the local championships. The only hope for this team to play in the Europa League next season is to win the Italian cup final. Juventus won eleven out of twelve matches in Serie A recently, only facing failure in the penultimate round match against "Verona." However, in the last round, the Turin team crushed "Sampdoria" 5-0, so it is doubtful that their form has worsened at the moment. Team losses and returns: In this match, Milan will be without key defenders Ignazio Abate and Luca Antonelli. M'Baye Niang returned to the attack this week, but it is doubtful whether this player will be thrown into the arena. Juventus will have to do without injured midfielder Sami Khedira, suspended defender Leonardo Bonucci, and we should not see Gianluigi Buffon in the goal. The 38-year-old veteran is healthy and ready for the match, but Neto, who kept the goal a total of three times out of four in previous cup matches, is expected to be given the role of the primary goalkeeper in the final. What coaches said before the match: "All teams have weaknesses. Strong teams have fewer of them, and Juve is one of those teams. They also have a winner's mentality, which helped them dig themselves out after a difficult start to the season. But if you fight - you can win. These are matches where the result is more important than your game. In this match, we will try to make things as difficult as possible for the Juventus team," - Milan coach Cristian Brocchi said. "These are just one game, and anything can happen. This is Milan's last chance to qualify for the Europa League next season. We saw their reaction after the last Serie A match. It should be a duel of equal opponents. Our last matches against Milan have always been tough, and there are never easy matches in finals," - Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri said. Predicted lineups: "Milan": Gianluigi Donnarumma; Davide Calabria, Cristian Zapata, Alessio Romagnoli, Mattia De Sciglio; Juraj Kucka, Riccardo Montolivo, Andrea Poli; Keisuke Honda, Carlos Bacca, Giacomo Bonaventura. "Juventus": Norberto Neto; Daniele Rugani, Andrea Barzagli, Giorgio Chiellini; Stephan Lichtsteiner, Stefano Sturaro, Hernanes, Paul Pogba, Patrice Evra; Paulo Dybala, Mario Mandzukic. Key facts before the match: The last time these teams met in the cup was in the quarterfinals in 2013. In that match, Juventus won after extra time; Juventus has dominated the head-to-head matches in Serie A recently, having won seven games in a row; In the five cup matches this season, Milan scored 16 goals and conceded only two goals to their opponents; Juventus kept their goal clean three times in the four cup matches, but in the match where they conceded, they allowed the opponents to score three goals; The last time Milan played in the cup final was in the 2002-2003 season when they defeated Roma and won their fifth Coppa Italia trophy; Having won last year's cup, Juventus secured a record tenth cup. This weekend's cup finals: Saturday: 19:30 FA Cup: "Crystal Palace" - "Manchester United" 21:00 DFB Pokal: "Bayern" - "Borussia" 21:45 Coppa Italia: "Milan" - "Juventus" 22:00 Coupe de France: "Marseille" - "Paris Saint-Germain" Sunday: 22:30 Copa del Rey: "Barcelona" - "Sevilla"
Tautvydas Sakalauskas
