Five keys for the Champions League final: Ronaldo's record, Real's running and the Atleti attack

Let’s get the headline out of the way first: Cristiano Ronaldo will play in the Champions League final. Real Madrid’s swaggering all-time record goalscorer was a minor doubt with a persistent fitness problem this week but Zinedine Zidane revealed to the press on Friday that the man who has a legitimately incredible 364 goals in 347 games for the club will take his place on the left of the famed BBC attack. "Cristiano is now certainly 100 per cent," said Zidane. "Even if he was feeling any niggles, they disappear at a Champions League final.”

Ronaldo is chasing another piece of history going into the Milan final. He has scored 16 goals in 11 matches en route to the final and is just one short of the Champions League season record, which stands at 17. The man who set that record was, inevitably, Ronaldo himself, with his penalty in the final of the Champions League in 2014 against, yes, Atletico Madrid.

Despite winning his second Champions League trophy, Lisbon was a bit of an unsatisfying night for Ronaldo. Atleti stifled him for long periods and his penalty was pointless, coming as it did at 3-1 up in extra-time (not that you would know it from the bare-torso celebrations which followed). As well as aiming to equal or better his own record, Ronaldo will want to really make the difference this time. He is again up against the hugely experienced Atleti right-back Juanfran and their personal duel will be one of the more significant on display in Milan.

If any further insight were required into the Diego Simeone mindset, and what he values in a footballer, the Atleti coach’s appraisal of Real Madrid’s star player provided it. Rather than highlighting the historically dominant goalscoring of Ronaldo or the effortless grace and influence of Luka Modric, Simeone instead bestowed the title on none other than Casemiro - Real Madrid’s Brazilian holding midfielder, who started only 17 Liga games this season and earlier in the campaign had become a byword for negativity.

Asked if Casemiro was the most important cog in the Real Madrid machine, he replied: "For the balance of Real Madrid, yes, certainly. It's going to be a very tense, balanced game. The presence of Casemiro gives them the possibility of regrouping better if they lose the ball. Casemiro makes Madrid very dangerous on the counter-attack. If you give them space they're very dangerous."

The Brazilian was an unwitting protagonist in Real Madrid’s worst moment of the season: the 4-0 home loss to Barcelona in November which doomed Rafa Benitez. A naturally cautious coach dropped his midfield shield after eight consecutive starts - some said due to pressure from president Florentino Perez to be more offensive, or even his own players - and it left Madrid far too open. Zidane is savvy enough to know that his presence is vital in anchoring a team so top-heavy with talent.

Where Madrid have one holder, Atleti have two in the form of captain Gabi and Augusto Fernandez. With Saul Niguez and Koke both narrow playmakers on the wings, it gives Atleti an incredibly compact core. It is why, with an extraordinarily well drilled defence, they conceded only 18 goals in La Liga this season and just six in reaching the Champions League final.

So with Atleti set up to frustrate and Madrid installing Casemiro at the base of their midfield, it could be a cagey encounter. One of those games you justify as tactically fascinating, rather than genuinely exhilarating.

The temptation is to bill this as a classic encounter between the unstoppable force and the immovable object, especially with Madrid possessing the most expensive frontline ever assembled, but that would disguise Atleti’s own threat in attack, most notably the electric Antoine Griezmann, who scored against both Bayern Munich and Barcelona to take his side into the final. Griezmann is the outlet for Atleti’s rapier-like counter-attacks and if they can lure Real Madrid’s full-backs forward and find space to attack then Simeone’s side could show off their huge attacking qualities.

There is also another facet of Atleti’s attacking play which makes them such a threat: set-pieces. The irony is that it was a corner, taken by Luka Modric and headed home by Sergio Ramos, which denied Atleti their first European Cup in Lisbon two years ago, but in truth it is Simeone’s incredibly well-drilled and prepared side who are the masters of the dead-ball situation. Centre-back Diego Godin is an obvious threat in this regard.

As Ramos said: “Atletico are a team that will punish any lack of concentration, and extra concentration and motivation around free-kicks and corners is required. In the Champions League you have to have all your senses alert to the quality of players around you.”

Just as Atleti are too easy to pigeonhole as a defensive team, perhaps Real Madrid will aim to put a few pre-conceptions to bed as well on Saturday night. The image of the club is that of the galacticos, a collection of the biggest stars in football, but who consistently fail to look like a proper team. It is an alluring concept - mostly because it has been proven accurate time and again, even in defeating Atleti in Lisbon two years ago when they put in an unconvincing performance until Atleti tired in extra-time.

But Zidane’s message for his players was clear on the eve of the final: “It will be a very complicated game, but we know this and are prepared for it. But in a final it is perfectly normal to have problems in a game. You need to suffer to win. Above all we have to defend well when we don’t have the ball. And on top of that we have our attacking weapons. But what we have to do on Saturday is run, run and run.”

If the players buy into Zidane’s instructions - and they have since his appointment in January, with 21 wins in 26 games - then we will see a different Real Madrid, one whose players run themselves into the ground for their colleagues. If however egos rule again, then the Undecima could be lost.

Atleti will press him hard but there are few more enjoyable sights on a football pitch than Modric dictating the flow of a game. Forget the occasion, forget the pressure, forget the opponents, Modric will glide around the San Siro turf and everyone will be bewitched by his skill and dexterity. Jonathan Wilson told you as much this week.