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.
The Second Half: It All Goes Downhill For Juventus
With the second half came a turn of events that no one could have predicted. Los Blancos came out guns blazing, with multiple plays that almost ended in a goal. The first was a long distance shot by Luka Modric, who unfortunately placed the ball close to the center of the goal and gave Buffon an easy save.
Then came a weak shot from Toni Kroos, who looked to be trying to place it in the bottom right corner, but saw his chance bounce off Chiellini’s boot outside of the area.
But this was another player’s chance to shine. Casemiro saw that deflection and ran towards it, taking a powerful shot at the goal. This wasn’t his first attempt at this type of shot this match, but his time, the ball nicked former Madrid player, Sami Khedira’s shoe when he jumped and found its way to the back of the net. Had it been deflected in any other direction, Buffon might’ve gotten to it, but the ball entered at an impossible angle, grazing the post at the bottom left corner.
At this point, it almost seemed like Juventus didn’t know what to do. They had prided themselves in only conceding 3 goals in the whole competition, only to have 2 of them scored in less than 60 minutes in the final!
Two minutes later, Cristiano Ronaldo found the third goal of the match, completing his brace. Luka Modric made a beautiful run across the edge of the pitch and passed the ball to Cristiano Ronaldo, who slotted it past Buffon with a powerful shot at close range. Juventus’s fairytale Champions League run was crumbling before our very eyes, and no one could believe it.
Juve’s fairytale Champions League run was crumbling before our very eyes, and no one could believe it.
Allegri fumbled around, desperately trying to try and fix the holes in his tactics. Why was his defense failing like this? Why couldn’t his front trio get past one of the leakiest defenses of the knockout stages? He tried and tried, but ended with three substitutions: Cuadrado in for Barzagli, Marchisio in for Pjanic, and Lemina in for Dybala.
On paper, this change would make his team more attacking-oriented, but all it did was leave his team in a weakened state defensively. Cuadrado came out aggressive, picking up a yellow card 5 minutes in.
Shortly after, Real Madrid began making some changes too, The first was Gareth Bale, who came in for a disappointing Karim Benzema. Bale took up his preferred position, left winger, while Ronaldo focused on being a classic 9. Then came Marco Asensio, who took over for Isco. Asensio is faster than Isco and the drop off in dribbling skill is minor, so it was a 1 for 1 sub.
Minutes later, Cuadrado made a run on the right wing, only to have Sergio Ramos come in with an aggressive slide tackle. The tackle was clean, but Cuadrado and Ramos ended up exchanging words as they stood up. Cuadrado then lightly shoved Ramos, who took the biggest dive of his life. He must’ve sold the dive well because Cuadrado earned his second yellow card and Juventus were left with 10 men on the pitch.
With Juve down a man, weaker defensively, and Real Madrid at their absolute best, it was just a matter of time for Madrid to score a final goal before the end of the match. That goal came in the 90th minute.
Marcelo almost mimicked Luka Modric’s run from earlier in the game and placed the ball at Asensio’s feet, who then coolly placed the shot past Buffon’s reach.
4-1. No one could believe it. The team that had prided themselves on having the best defense had just been thrashed by Real Madrid. Real had scored more goals on Juventus in 90 minutes than the whole of the Champions League had done in the whole competition.
Unreal.