It was a European Cup that will long live in the memories of those in attendance and the hundreds of millions who watched around the world. It will be a cup final forever linked with Liverpool goalkeeper Loris Karius, whose two costly mistakes handed the best team in the world the Champions League.
It will be a cup final forever linked with Real Madrid striker Gareth Bale. Dropped from the starting line-up, he came on to win the game with a goal so good it might be the best ever goal scored in a cup final.
It is a cup final where Real Madrid captain Sergio Ramos, whose arm bar on Mo Salah after 28 minutes would have made Ronda Rousey proud, knocked Liverpool’s superstar player out of the game, and basically made the result a foregone conclusion.
It was a cup final where Real Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane, led his side to their third successive Champions League trophy, joining Carlo Ancelotti and Bob Paisley as the most-successful coaches in the history of this competition. What is remarkable is that since replacing Rafa Benitez at Madrid in January 2016, Zidane has won nine trophies in total.
The manager’s haul (three Champions League titles, two FIFA Club World Cups, two European Super Cups, one Spanish Super Cup and one La Liga title) means he wins a trophy on average every 16.5 matches.
Meanwhile, Real Madrid join Ajax and Bayern Munich from the 1970s in winning three successive trophies. Remarkable, this was not their best performance. Real never seemed to hit their heights it the match, but with Luka Modrid and Toni Kroos controlling the strings they never had too.
While Zidane cannot stop winning trophies, for Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp, the defeat in Kiev was his sixth consecutive final defeat. His third as Liverpool manager. That record cannot take away from what he has done as Liverpool manager where he has once again given the Kop hope for a domestic or European trophy.
