Real Madrid made it 14, after beating the Liverpool for the 2022 Champions League in the final on Saturday May 28. The Spanish team currently has 14 Champions League prizes to their credit, which is more than the next two best clubs in Europe. AC Milan have seven, while Liverpool has six combined.
Real Madrid’s Carlo Ancelotti also has four as a manager, which is more than any other manager in the Champions League history.
“I am a record man!” he said, equal measures > disbelieving and self-indiscernible.
Meanwhile, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp says his side will go again in the future after the loss.
Notwithstanding Vinicius’ second half goal that secured the title for Madrid, goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois also made a monstrous showing by inspiring Madrid to the UEFA Champions League brilliance. Liverpool’s dreams ended with his inconceivable saves.
No club is as firmly associated with this trophy: From the beginning of Paco Gento, Ferenc Puskas and Alfredo Di Stefano, to the Zinedine Zidane Galactico period at the turn of the thousand years to this outfit, fit for bringing home five European championships in nine years.
“There’s not much I can say — this was a really difficult Champions League campaign, if anything tonight was easier than the previous games,” Ancelotti said.
According to Ancelotti, the main factors that drove them to victory was — Quality, mentality, the experience of the veterans, and the impact of the youngsters. But he has never seen anybody win without being a bit lucky at times, too.
Before the Final game, Real Madrid went to the Stade de France with three weeks of late-season games that were de facto preseason warm-ups. They had the luxury to rest and recuperate, tweak and tinker, with their eyes and minds fully engaged on the prize.
Liverpool’s quest for the fourfold implied Jurgen Klopp didn’t have that luxury on the day. The facts really confirm that he rested players when he could, however he actually had a hard-battled FA Cup final against Chelsea all set to fight with only fourteen days prior, and regardless, the psychological channel of being inside a place of inevitable Premier League champions City can’t be undervalued.
With the kickoff delayed almost 40 minutes for security issues outside, which saw a few fans pepper-sprayed, the tension grew as the pregame minutes passed. The delays were significant to such an extent that the two teams returned out on the pitch to heat up once more.
The game unfurled as prearranged in the early going. At the point when Madrid attempted to play from the back, they were met with the central obstruction of Salah and Sadio Mane, with Luis Diaz on the left and either Jordan Henderson or Trent Alexander-Arnold on the right. When they searched for the long “out ball” (most frequently to Vinicius), Ibrahima Konate was in many cases there to meet him venture for step.
It wasn’t surprising, then, that the first sustained spell of Madrid possession in the Liverpool half didn’t come until the 25th minute or so. Before that, Courtois had to make two key saves off Salah and rely on the post after Mane skipped past Eder Militao, created space where there wasn’t any and rifled his shot against the woodwork.
Madrid were on the ropes, but this is a team that knows how to both dazzle and suffer. There was Dani Carvajal matching the lightning quick Diaz and poking the ball away, generating a roar from the white-clad mass behind the Madrid goal. There was David Alaba, demanding and getting a massive chest-bump from his defensive partner, Militao. They needed a spark and they got it from the way they defended.
At the opposite end, there wasn’t a lot. The feature ought to have been Benzema’s goal – – not the one he scored and was then disallowed because of a naughtily muddled translation of the offside rule.
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Vinicius partook in a breakout season playing Robin to Benzema’s Batman with a large number of goals and assists, while Valverde showed the sort of hard cap dependability and adaptability that made Ancelotti’s crossover 4-3-3/4-4-2 formation conceivable.
“Today, nobody was going to take my desire to win the Champions League away from me, l was going to win it,” Courtois said after the game.
As the clock ticked into injury time, Liverpool supporters raised a chorus of “You’ll Never Walk Alone” into the Paris sky. Moments later, Madrid fans replied with the staccato cry: “Asi! Asi! Asi gana el Madrid!” (“That’s how! That’s how! That’s how Madrid win!”).
“This was maybe the most difficult Champions League [win],” Benzema said. “We showed everyone that we’re alive and that we’re here and we won.”
For Courtois, who is in the prime of his career, having a special interest as the world’s No. 1 between the posts and getting a couple of things out in the chest was a plus.
Courtois was the key to Carlo Ancelotti’s 4th crown, as the latter rewrote the Champions League history books as Vinicius Junior’s second-half goal clinched a 1-0 win against Liverpool in Paris to secure a record 14th success for Real and make Ancelotti the first coach to win four European Cups.
