The event will have a place in posterity as heroic, inexplicable, paranormal or supernatural. Or not so much if we talk about Madrid, fourteen times European champion in 67 editions (one in five) and in six different decades. An imperishable legend. A winner from the first to the last day in a competition of which he feels founder and protector. A triumph junkie who did not win any of his cups for bringing together a great generation, who also, but educated each generation, regardless of their quality, in victory: Di Stéfano, the yeyés, the Garcías, the Buitre fifths and of the Ferraris and the long saga that started with Cristiano and was inherited by Benzema. Different soccer players with identical demands. In Paris he liquidated Liverpool, the last skyscraper, with a goalkeeper for the legend, Courtois, and with an irreducible troublemaker, Vinicius. Only Bayern was missing to lift the five-point cup. With four, it will be more valuable than ever. The merit of this team is that their faith was even above that of their fans, which is saying something.
The party came from behind. An organizational blunder caused the total collapse of the Liverpool fans’ access area and the start had to be delayed for more than half an hour. UEFA owes an explanation. That forced a double warm-up of the teams and cooled down the stands. The final deserved something else.
Madrid also started cold, trapped in that pressure at full volume from Liverpool, a team that takes advantage of all the time and the whole field. There is no respite. Ancelotti’s group was waiting for him, whose first message in the game was to look long for Vinicius and Valverde, the team’s Swiss army knife. A game of chance that demands extreme precision. The truth is that neither one nor the other slipped in: Madrid did not incur fatal losses, Liverpool denied all the sprints of the white wingers with an excellent Konaté as a correction factor. He was Vinicius’ true sentinel.
All until Liverpool decided to go one step ahead, threw the ball behind their backs and launched into the tackle. In five minutes he forced four saves from Courtois, two of them exceptional, in point-blank shots from Salah and Mané. This one played glove and stick. That’s when the white team learned that the reds are made of titanium: resistant but light.
Madrid was immersed in the perverse dynamics of the Parque de los Príncipes and the Etihad. No one has skidded so much in this Champions League, although he always ended up getting back on track. His only mission, very minor, in that section was to take shelter. The thing was going to subside more than to reply to Ancelotti’s raised eyebrow, to lower the volume of the match because the rhythm proposed by Liverpool was beyond the reach of Modric and Kroos. That did make it. After half an hour that Liverpool fire seemed half extinguished, although it was not able to stop the bleeding of an impeccable Alexander-Arnold, a full-fledged assault winger.
The report of the first half spoke of a heroic Courtois and an unprecedented Alisson, a very adverse scenario for Madrid without translation on the scoreboard. The team was still afloat thanks to the application of its defensive quartet: powerful wingers, very attentive Alaba and Militao. And in those came one of those CSI plays. Benzema found himself alone against Alisson, who closed him off, screwed up the back pass, Valverde arrived, Fabinho went to the cut, the Brazilian touched the ball with a knee at ground level and the ball returned to the Frenchman, who scored in an illegal position. The VAR took four minutes to determine if it was a rebound, which invalidated the goal, or clearance by Fabinho, which legalized it. From the cabin they put out a red flag. White would also have been acceptable. The debate about the disallowed goal will last for years. The Madrid fans cried out against Ceferin, who has had better days.
The shock didn’t change the game. Liverpool continued to be accompanied by strength and Madrid, Courtois. The natural was the English goal and the supernatural, what happened. Modric saved Liverpool’s first pressure, the ball reached Valverde, he drew a diagonal and his strong pass pushed Vinicius into the net. That is Alexander-Arnold’s Achilles heel: too much happens behind his back. A goal in the middle of nowhere. Madrid is also unmatched in that. Don’t give him a bullet.
After the hugs came the thorns, the extreme suffering. You don’t win a Champions League without having a bad time. Madrid has saved enough for the next five editions. Courtois saved Salah two left-footed shots, the RAF bombarded the white area, Casemiro missed a tremendous chance due to a lack of tact with his left foot, Klopp emptied the change magazine (Diogo Jota, Keita, Firmino…) , Ceballos missed the opportunity to enter history in discount… That was the final, with Madrid camped in his area, but alert at the exits. An exercise in resistance that took him to the Fourteenth Grabbing an exceptional goalkeeper. He named the title of an invincible team.
