They have tried since the beginning of the 21st century to create the ultimate winning machine at Real Madrid that might replicate the days when they were the original prototype for the super-club, and at last it seems that the dream has been realised in this, the game’s most competitive era.
Their third Champions League in four years, the first time the European Cup has been successfully defended in its new format, and two goals from Cristiano Ronaldo that made this victory look, in the second half, as straightforward as one of those routine Sunday afternoon La Liga strolls.
This is the Madrid of 2017, with five Champions League titles since the millennium and a current team that no other seems able to lay a glove on.
Not since the AC Milan team of 1989 and 1990 have a club been able to come back for a second year and win this trophy and yet, from the moment that Casemiro, the Brazilian midfielder clouted a shot that was deflected heavily past Gianluigi Buffon for the second, it was never in doubt. There were moments in the first half when Zinedine Zidane’s side had wobbled and then when finally they hit their groove after the break there was to be no stopping them.
For Ronaldo this was another momentous night which might pave the way for a fifth Ballon D’or which would take him equal with Lionel Messi and there is no disputing the Portuguese goalscorer’s ability to be in the right place at the right time in the big games. He has 600 career goals now at senior level for club and country and yet he is just a constituent part of the perfect football team.
Who could overlook the brilliant Luka Modric, the architect of everything Madrid do in attack and the creator of Ronaldo’s second goal? After an indifferent first half, Isco came into his own after half-time and when the job was done he made way for Gareth Bale, back on his home turf and winning his third Champions League but a long way from his very best form after that long injury lay-off.
Only Sergio Ramos let the side down, as only Sergio Ramos can, with some preposterous simulation late on in the game to ensure a second yellow card for the substitute Juan Cuadrado, who took less than 20 minutes to get his two bookings. It was a travesty that he was sent off but by then the light had gone out for Juventus, losing a record seventh final in this competition having scored a brilliantly taken goal from Mario Mandzukic in the first half.
Zidane is certainly making management look easy, and even now in these days when so many more can match Madrid’s spending he has shaped this embarrassment of riches into a team who have rightfully dominated the Champions League for two years. The French maestro has arrived on the scene at just the right time, just as Pep Guardiola once did at Barcelona, but he is certainly making the most of his opportunity and now has a league and Champions League double.
Their reputation is as the shutout kings of Europe, with just three goals conceded in the 12 matches that preceded this final, but Juventus started the game as a different kind of team. They took the match to Madrid, they pressed high up the pitch and they were direct. There was no sequence of passing required when a long ball could get them forward quickly.
Their opposition eventually took the lead but Madrid started the game colder. As expected, Isco had been selected ahead of Gareth Bale, who was on the substitutes’ bench. Bale emerged for the warm-up much later than his fellow substitutes but eventually came down the tunnel in good spirits and, as the first half played out, he could surely imagine a part for himself in this game.
Isco gave the ball away more than anyone is usually permitted to do at this elite level and, before the break, he was one of a number of Madrid players who could not plot a way through Juventus. There were only two periods when Juventus stood off and let Luka Modric and Toni Kroos pass the ball, retreating deep inside their own half to try to absorb the pressure, but for the most part they pushed on and put their opponents under pressure.
They might have scored when Miralem Pjanic chested down a pass on the edge of the area within six minutes and hit a shot that Keylor Navas pushed away well. The Croatian seemed to have a lot of time to shoot.
When he scored the opener, Ronaldo had barely been given a look in the game and had switched to the right side to get away from Dani Alves. His chance came when Madrid worked the ball from left to right and Ronaldo passed it on to Dani Carvajal before darting into the area and demanding the return.
It was delivered perfectly to be hit right-footed first time, which Ronaldo did, benefiting from a slight touch off Leonardo Bonucci that just took the ball away from Gianluigi Buffon and into the corner.
It was just the second goal that Juventus had conceded in the competition from open play all season but that is what Madrid can do when they get an opponent on the run and turning back towards their own goal. There was a chance for a second in the aftermath but Isco miscontrolled Modric’s pass as Madrid went off on the breakaway.
The equaliser came within seven minutes and was a direct move executed with immaculate technical precision. Alex Sandro crossed from deep into the corner to Gonzalo Higuain, who took the ball on his chest and had the presence of mind to play it away from goal to Mandzukic. He was in the left channel, facing away from goal and with very little on but he took the ball on his chest, which gave him enough time to reposition himself for a right-footed shot over his shoulder.
It was a marvellous piece of skill and a spectacular goal, but you did wonder how Navas was beaten from such range.
The shot was high and well-placed but it was within the reach of a top goalkeeper and somehow Navas could not get to it. Juventus finished the half strongly and there were bookings for Sergio Ramos and Carvajal before the break, the Madrid captain in particular having been fortunate to escape a yellow card before then.
After the break it was a different Madrid and the goal scored by Casemiro on 61 minutes was well-deserved if fortunate in the way in which it flicked off Sami Khedira to spin beyond Buffon and into the corner. For the third it was Modric’s quick thinking to dart down the right channel in pursuit of Carvajal’s pass and cut the ball back for Ronaldo. Marco Asensio, a substitute added the fourth in injury time, with Juventus on their knees and a famous old defence well and truly broken.
Congratulations!!! Hala-Madrid!!!
