Real Madrid‘s journey through the Champions League has always resembled a tightrope act. Why do the giants of Spain never trip and fall? However, they don’t.
Dani Carvajal and Vinicius Jr.’s late goals at Wembley gave Real Madrid victory for the fifteenth time, as manager Carlo Ancelotti raised the colossal trophy for the fifth time.
Borussia Dortmund’s daring bid was defeated. Amid the fireworks over the stadium, there were lots of festivities. A well-known drama had reached a well-known ending.
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The saying “if you’ve seen one of these victories, you’ve seen them all” isn’t quite accurate, but many of the rival teams Real has crushed in these finals in the past—Liverpool, Atletico Madrid, and others in particular—will understand the hurt Dortmund felt as they left the stadium in sorrow in front of their incredible supporters, who filled Wembley with colour and noise.
Real Madrid gave a terrible first-half display, letting Dortmund’s intensity and pace get to them and making them nervous as they managed to tie the score before halftime.
Karim Adeyemi will question if he should have shot when clean through instead of attempting to get past Real Madrid custodian Thibaut Courtois, and if he might have performed better with a second chance that was saved.
when the break, Courtois stopped Niclas Fullkrug from scoring when his header deflected off the inside of the post.
And whenever Real seemed like they were in serious difficulty, as they did against Manchester City in the quarterfinals and Bayern Munich in the last four, there was always a mounting sense of inevitable that they would pull through.
Real is the merciless winner of the Champions League. They also have a coach with the Midas touch in Ancelotti, who is in charge of players who are capable of winning.
Dortmund once again demonstrated their mettle when, 16 minutes from time, Carvajal met a corner from Toni Kroos and glanced a header past custodian Gregor Kobel and defender Mats Hummels’ palm, tempting Kobel to risk a red card to stop the effort. The match had ended.
Vinicius Jr. added a second goal quickly after to make sure Real Madrid fans could celebrate victory in the championship in which they are the clear favourites. We who have watched Real Madrid’s success in the Champions League over the years are now seasoned pros at this.
We remember seeing them upset fierce rivals Atletico Madrid in 2014 at Lisbon’s Stadium of Light thanks to a Sergio Ramos equaliser in the 93rd minute. They went on to win 4-1, giving Ancelotti his first Champions League championship with the team.
Two years ago in Paris, one of Courtois’s greatest flawless goalkeeping displays drove Mohamed Salah of Liverpool, in particular, to despair as Vinicius Jr. emerged victorious in the encounter.
The urge is to call Real lucky, but this isn’t a fair description because it happens far too frequently. Real had been awful, but a straw poll of neutrals at half-time at Wembley would have been strongly in favour of a Real win.
Real, despite being terrible for much of the game, wrote a new chapter in their illustrious history. So True. Carlo Ancelotti.
