When Real Madrid feature in the final of the Champions League they just don't play but they play to lift the title and it was proved yet again in Paris. Assailed by chaos off the pitch before the game, Liverpool were undone by the beautiful anarchy of Real Madrid at the Stade de France.
Carlo Ancelotti’s team ran on miracles all the way to this Champions League final and they found another one in Paris with an outstanding performance from their goalkeeper, Thibault Courtois, that sometimes defied logic and brought them a remarkable 14th triumph in the world’s greatest club competition.
Outside the Stade de France, Liverpool’s fans had been made to wait for hours in the spring sunshine, the kick-off growing nearer and nearer, the confusion growing and growing, the congestion starting to seem dangerous and worrying.
Gates were closed for no apparent reason. Parents and young children were doused with pepper spray.
The kick-off was delayed by 36 minutes and anger and impotence were everywhere.
Once the game eventually began, Liverpool, whose team bus had been trapped in traffic on the way to the stadium, attempted to introduce order to the chaos and somehow defuse Madrid’s reputation the Reds ahd Madrid on the backfoot and exposed their backline yet again!
Liverpool tacked in a coordinated fashion where the midfield made the moves, interlinked very well with the forward line, that responded superbly only to be denied by Thibaut Courtois.
There was also uncertainty about the Liverpool line-up right until kick-off. In the warm-up, Thiago Alcantara, who had been named in the starting eleven despite being an injury doubt, did not take part in the drills with the rest of the team but trained with a coach, his place taken by Naby Keita. But when the teams eventually emerged, Thiago was in their number.
Liverpool forced the first chance after 15 minutes when Trent Alexander-Arnold played a fine exchange of passes to make space in the Real Madrid box and cut the ball back for Mohamed Salah.
Salah, who declared of revenge against Madrid for that eventful night at Kyiv in 2018, was falling as he clipped a right-foot shot goalwards and Courtois dived smartly to his left to push it away.
Salah saw a snapshot saved by the goalkeeper soon afterward and Alexander-Arnold blazed over from a promising position.
Liverpool were dominating the game.
Sadio Mane jinked inside a tackle 15 yards out and unleashed a shot that seemed to be destined for the bottom corner.
Courtois, though, has a huge frame and he used every inch of it to dive to his right and tip the ball against the post.
For a moment, it seemed it might rebound into the goal of his prone form but Real escaped. They were clinging on for all they were worth.
Liverpool went close again ten minutes before halftime when Alexander-Arnold, checked his run on the right and curled a left-foot cross into the box. It found Salah in space ten yards out but when he tried to power his header past Courtois, he directed it too close to him and the Belgium goalkeeper clutched it gratefully.
The Real defence was struggling to cope with Mane in particular and Liverpool kept pressing for the opener.
The fear was that Liverpool, who had had ten shots to Madrid’s one, would rue not scoring while they were on top and that fear was almost realized two minutes before halftime as Karim Benzema ran on to a diagonal ball, cut inside Andrew Robertson and poked an attempted pass across goal.
Alisson and Ibrahima Konate got into a dreadful mess trying to clear it and when the ball ran back to Benzema, he swept it into the goal.
The offside flag went up immediately and after an agonizingly long VAR check, the decision was upheld.
After the break, Ancelotti changed the tactics and overload the right side of the midfield with the intention of freeing the left flank and Vinicius Junior who was more or less being tracked by the stubborn and sharp Trent Alexander-Arnold.
And the plan worked as a brilliant interchange between Dani Carvajal and Casemiro let ball move to Fede Valverde produced a stupendous pass that found Vinicius Junior on the left - who was free and put the ball into the net with TAA left watching.
Madrid was still shaky at the back and Liverpool tired to hit back.
Salah curled a shot from the edge of the area that Courtois dived full-length to push away. Courtois flung himself at the feet of Salah 20 minutes from the end to block another close-range effort.
Liverpool thought they had scored eight minutes from the end when Salah ran at the retreating Madrid defence, turning them one way and then another until he only had Courtois to beat. He hit his right foot shot sweetly enough but Courtois produced a quite brilliant save to push it away with his right hand.
If Liverpool had come here seeking revenge for their defeat to Madrid in the final in Kyiv in 2018, Madrid left having gained revenge for their defeat to Liverpool in Paris in 1981 in the final. This was their fifth Champions League triumph in the last nine years. ‘This is something unbelievable,’ their Croatia playmaker Luka Modric, who played in all five, said afterward. Madrid have now won all eight of the finals they have contested in the Champions League era.
The Itaian supremo - Ancelotti - has delivered for Real Madrid.
When he was appointed as the head coach of Los Blancos, the great Zinedine Zidane had left after a tough season and all Ancelotti had to do was to carry on the work of Zidane in a more organized fashion.
Real Madrid last summer were not satisfied with their current style of play and they needed a stylistic overhaul.
Ancelotti has found himself in that exact situation before.
He was tasked with establishing an exciting style of play that would please everyone and his success rate in doing so is actually remarkable considering he didn't always get the necessary backing in the transfer market to do so.
At Chelsea he wanted Andrea Pirlo to play in front of the two center-backs as a deep-lying playmaker. But Chelsea couldn’t buy Pirlo. Ancelotti made Micheal Essien his own version of Pirlo, and the player actually performed brilliantly under him.
He also transformed Angel Di Maria’s profile in 2013-14 to such an extent that Di Maria was referred to as the third-best player in the world for a brief period. From a dribbling winger, Ancelotti made Di Maria a line breaker on the left half space and on the central channels behind Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema.
This time around, it would be the revolution work with Vinicius Junior.
Ancelotti noticed that Vinicius was more focused on spending time on the ball and which was hampering his goal-scoring abilities - Ancelotti advised Vini to curb that instinct and when Vini followed that - he became an unstoppable force.
Ancelotti witnessed how improved Benzema has become over the last couple of years and what he needed the most was a partner who could deliver the goods - in Vinicius Junior, Ancelotti found the Robin to Batman's heroics.
When Ancelotti returned to Real Madrid in 2021, he had the pressure of playing big names such as Eden Hazard and Gareth Bale on the roster. He had Luka Jovic who earns very high wages at the club. Although he trusted Bale and Hazard in the initial one or two games, he had to make a call pretty quickly whether he is going to indulge in the glamour of star names or unleash Vinicius ahead of them.
Carlo was asked to play 16-year-old Martin Odegaard in three games by none other than Florentino Perez in 2015. Carlo refused and only played him in as a substitute in a non-consequential match. Gareth Bale’s agent went to the Real Madrid president directly to change Bale’s position in the middle of the season. Carlo declined the request in the utmost professional manner for the greater good of the squad and this in fact played a huge role in his sacking in 2015. But that did not deter him from standing his ground.
This may appear as stretching it too far but Real Madrid parted ways with Kaka in 2013 - a player who won the Ballon D'or under Ancelotti. He could probably have attempted to prolong Kaka’s stay if he really pushed, but Carlo believed in the freshness of that project and all parties moved on.
In the current squad, he invested faith in young guns that were delivered by Zidane and made them grow under the legends - in each and every moment, he gave us the impression, of how this combination could deliver and create moments.
Much of the credit for Madrid’s La Liga title and run to the Champions League final has gone to its stalwarts: Modric, Karim Benzema, and Thibaut Courtois, all of whom have been excellent. But in fact Ancelotti has quietly overhauled the playing XI, rebuilding his frontline around the explosive Vinícius Júnior and Rodrygo (both 21), handing Eder Militao (24) a regular role in defence, trusting Fede Valverde (23) in midfield.
All of which looks elementary in retrospect, but Madrid is frequently a place where young talent goes to grow old and go on loan. Older players like Isco, Eden Hazard and Marcelo have quietly been eased to the margins, and yet still seem thoroughly buzzing to be there.
He has been the best man-manager and kept the relationship with the press wonderful that is helping his cause in many ways.
You don't win 4 Champions League titles as a manager by fluke, rather, you have to be an outstanding cocktail - of course, winning the La Liga title and Champions League in the same season is huge!
He is known as Don Carlo for a reason.
Thank You
Faisal Caesar
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