On this day 15 years ago: Zinedine Zidane wins Real Madrid their 9th Champions League title
By Ben Sundock
Most casual soccer fans only remember the player Zinedine Zidane for his heinous head butting incident in the 2006 World Cup in Germany. However, Real Madrid fans remember Zizou as the captain of several fantastic teams, and the man who scored the game-winning goal for Los Blancos in the 2002 Champions League Final against Bayer Leverkusen. Seeing as today is the 15th anniversary of the amazing final, let’s relive it.
15 years after one of the most famous matches in Real Madrid history, the replay of Zidane striking a ridiculous volley in to the top corner of the Leverkusen net is shown frequently. And who can blame the fans? It is – in the words of the amazing Ray Hudson – a “magisterial” goal.
In a match that was a tale of two halves, Real Madrid prevailed over the German side 2-1 with all the goals in the match coming in the first half.
The first goal for Los Blancos came from one of the best to ever play the game, Raúl, who was able to take a long throw-in from left back Roberto Carlos and beat the entire Leverkusen defense to put Real up 1-0 in just 8 minutes.
However, Bayer were quick to hit back, as just 5 minutes later, a beautiful free kick from midfielder Bernd Schneider found the head of Brazilian center back, Lúcio, who leveled the score.
It wasn’t until just before halftime, in the 45th minute, when the wickedly talented Roberto Carlos crossed a ball to attacking midfielder, Zinedine Zidane, who decided to take a shot off a volley with his left foot from the edge of the box, proving to be the game winning goal.
And not only was it the game winning goal, it’s probably one of the best volleys you’ll ever see:
Real Madrid then did everything in their power to hold on to that lead, and after starting goalkeeper César was forced to leave the match with a leg injury, fans got their first glance at the future between the posts in Madrid, Iker Casillas.
Casillas was phenomenal, making three goal line saves, throwing himself left and right to make sure that his team were to be crowned champions.
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This is one of those matches that I wish I could’ve seen live. Sadly however, I was just 6 years-old at the time and didn’t have the slightest clue what European soccer was.
Real Madrid have certainly had some thrilling Champions League Final wins in the last few years, (namely 2014 and 2016) but this one might outdo both of those combined.
I just can’t get over how amazing that Zidane goal was. Do you think he could still lace them up and go out there and score goals? Because I sure do. Just look at his foot skills in training this year! He’s still got it!