Real Madrid and Juventus finally faced off in the final, and a lot happened in 90 minutes. One of the greatest goals in a final was scored, Real Madrid reminded us how great they are, and Juventus saw the end of their fairytale run. Here’s our match recap of the Champions League Final.
After lots of speculation and anticipation, Real Madrid have come out victorious! Juventus easily put up the best first half of a match in any Champions League final, but unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to take down an unstoppable Real Madrid side who scored more goals in 90 minutes against Juventus than all of the teams combined in the 12 UCL games prior.
The match started like most of expected. Juventus came out like a team with something to prove, completely dominating the first 15 minutes of the match. Higuain had two chances early on, but couldn’t quite take advantage of them like he wanted to. The clearest opportunity, however, came from Pjanic, who struck the ball from outside of the box and forced a beautiful stop from Navas. After that, Juventus tracked back to play their usual game, giving Real Madrid space to push forward while trying to use Alves and Alex Sandro to start the counterattack. Real Madrid looked to be attacking with no luck until they beat Juventus at their own game: countering.
After that, Juventus tracked back to play their usual game, giving Real Madrid space to push forward while trying to use Dani Alves and Alex Sandro to start the counterattack. Real Madrid looked to be attacking with no luck until they beat Juventus at their own game: countering.
Real started a flawless counter, and a 1-2 pass from Ronaldo and Dani Carvajal left Ronaldo alone at the top of the box. Cristiano then shot a curling ground ball into the left side of the net, angling it in a way that not even the great Buffon could stop it.
Madrid seemed to finally shut up the haters when something no one could’ve predicted happened: Mario Mandzukic scored one of the most beautiful goals in Champions League history.
It all started with a run by Alex Sandro, who looked for Higuain in the penalty box. Higuain tried to control the ball but saw the ball bounce to Mandzukic, who then bumped it with his chest and sent a glorious bicycle kick over the heads of everyone and scored a goal rivaling that of Zidane’s famous volley in the 2002 Final.
With the score now 1-1, both teams tried to leave the pitch at halftime with an advantage, but none of them would find that edge. After two minutes of added the time, the ref blew the whistle for halftime.