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Champions League final: Imagine Dragons braced for Liverpool-Tottenham final 'two or three times larger than Super Bowl'

“To put it in American terms, (it is like) two or three Super Bowls combined.”

As Imagine Dragons prepare to open the Champions League final in June, guitarist Wayne Sermon is in no doubt of the size of the task ahead of them.

Though the elite European cup final will have just shy of 70,000 viewers at the Wanda Metropolitano, more than 150 million worldwide are predicted to tune in to the broadcast.

Predictions for Super Bowl audiences range between 140m to 165m while the Champions League final generally sees closer to 200m.

All of which makes for less than the ‘two or three times larger’ spectacle than the Grammy Award winners are expecting.

But still, better safe than sorry.

“We’re very aware of the magnitude of what we’re doing,” the 34-year-old said. “We’re equal parts excited, anxious and nervous.

“We definitely know what we’re up against, we’ve been planning for a long time and having a lot of meetings about it, we want to do it right.”

The American band will play at the Pepsi-sponsored opening ceremony ahead of football’s showpiece event in Madrid.

They will hit the stage around ten minutes before Liverpool take on English rivals Tottenham for club football’s ultimate prize.

And although they have played half-time American college football shows before, Sermon knows it will be a unique challenge to attract the attention of eager fans, while dealing with potential performance pitfalls.

Indeed, in their eyes, you cannot be too prepared.

“This kind of stuff is different. Playing one of our shows, we are more comfortable on stage than we are in a lot of other places. Almost more comfortable than we are at home. That’s not really a problem.

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“But when it comes to this kind of stuff, there’s definitely an extra layer of Murphy’s law. Anything that can go wrong tries its best to (do so).

“There are a lot of things to control, a lot of eyes on it, so probably a little extra something in there. We try to thrive on it.

“We will look at the room and figure out how to make it work, how to capture the energy of the arena and the people watching.

“It will be no easy task but we’re definitely up for it.”

Which subsequently brings us to the next question; how on earth do you fit four albums worth of music into a short medley?

“We’re actually trying to fit a s**t-ton of music into six minutes of performance or so.

“We probably had 30 different versions of all the songs together just to get one that was finally right and we could pack the most songs in.”

The four-piece from America’s extensive world tour has seen them watch a lot of matches - becoming fans of Bayern Munich in the process, even playing them out after lifting the Bundesliga title in 2015.

“Travelling the world, especially a lot in Europe and South America, we have definitely seen just what it means to be a football fan.

“It’s sort of true that the US seems a little isolated, less so now than ever before. I don’t think people here quite understand what it means to go to a football match.”

But it was a clash between Manchester United and Chelsea which sold Sermon on the beautiful game.

“I couldn’t believe what that experience was. I had been to football games where it was kind of similar, but it was like the energy was wrapped up ten times higher.

“You seriously feel like the seats are going to collapse under you, there’s so much energy.”

But what next for the Radioactive and Thunder band? A glance at their tour list reveals three sporadic dates settled by a final appearance in November.

Their November 1 date being the US Grand Prix.

“I think after that we’re going to be taking a little break from touring, it’s aged us quite a bit.

“We’re going to let other people do it and take a break from it. It’s awesome but really stressful too.”

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