Real Madrid emerged victorious in their UEFA Champions League final against Borussia Dortmund last night, and have once again taken the crown of the European champions back on their head.
The match turned out almost like a written script, exactly as everyone expected the Merengues to perform in an important European match.
Ancelotti came up with no surprises in the lineup, as all of his starting players, except Aurelien Tchouameni, took the field. Eduardo Camavinga replaced the injured Frenchman at the base of the midfield, while Nacho kept his place in the defense. Thibaut Courtois was selected ahead of Andriy Lunin in the goal.
Borussia Dortmund were clearly the better side in the first half, and created multiple decent scoring opportunities. However, their forwards, Karim Adeyemi, and Niclas Fullkrug, were not clinical or fortunate enough as the post and Thibaut Courtois combined to keep them from scoring from any of these opportunities.
Still, with their performance in the first half, the Dortmund fans might have started hoping that their team will be actually able to beat Real Madrid in a UCL final, a desire their head coach has previously publicly acknowledged.
The Germans again came strong in the first phases of the second half, but Real Madrid came out even stronger, and punished them for their inability to make their chances count in the first half.
Dani Carvajal, perhaps the shortest player on the pitch, took advantage of a precise corner delivery from Toni Kroos to head home the ball, after Vinicius Junior weaved his magic on the left flank to force Hummels into conceding a corner. This was Carvajal’s first UCL goal of the season.
After this first goal in the 74th minute, Los Blancos doubled their lead nine minutes later as the Dortmund defender, Ian Maatsen, gave a pass to his opponent, Jude Bellingham, near his own box. The Englishman picked out a sprinting Vinicius Junior with a simple pass, who made no mistake and put the ball in the back of the net.
Real Madrid could have scored several more goals in the last 15 minutes, but Dortmund goalkeeper Gregor Kobel made several saves to keep his team in a fighting position. One such save came on a precise Toni Kroos free-kick, which, if it had gone in, would have allowed the German to end his club career with the best possible feeling.
Despite going 2-0 down, Dortmund kept fighting till the very last minute, and actually got the ball in the Madrid goal. However, the goal did not count as Niclas Fullkrug was offside before he headed the ball past Courtois.
Thus, Real Madrid came out victorious and celebrated their 6th UCL win in the last 10 years. It was a night to remember for players like Carvajal, Nacho, Modric, and especially Kroos, as they took their UCL tally to 6 trophies and equaled Paco Gento’s record.
