In the 59th minute, Fede Valverde got such a hunch. He noticed a space opening up in front of him, no Andrew Robertson around closing it, no other Liverpool man either. First Valverde took a few cautious steps, then a few determined ones, then, already on the edge of the area, he shot in the direction of the Liverpool goal, and because there, on the second post, another Madrilenian had such an idea, Vinicius Junior, it became the moment who decided the Champions League final.
After the 1-0 win late on Saturday night, Real celebrated a big fiesta in Paris, while Liverpool felt pursued by the dark powers of football. Real again, lost again, painful again, even if the circumstances were completely different this time. Jürgen Klopp’s team failed because of Madrid’s resilience, because of goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois – and a bit because of himself.
This also ends the series of German coaches who recently won the Champions League three times, Klopp, Hansi Flick, Thomas Tuchel, instead Carlo Ancelotti is now the sole record holder with four Champions League trophies won. It was Madrid’s 14th win and eighth in eight finals since the competition was renamed the Champions League. This means that Real is also an opponent of Frankfurt Eintracht in the European Supercup on August 10 in Helsinki, but that was still a long way off this Saturday evening in the Stade de France, where the final had been moved from Saint Petersburg as a result of the Russian attack on Ukraine.
Kick-off more than 30 minutes late
It was an evening that required a lot of patience. When the grand finale was about to begin, nothing happened at first. Yawning emptiness on the field at 9 p.m., even the lawn sprinklers that were still active had stopped working. The kick-off was postponed, sometimes because so many fans were late in front of the gates, then again, with not exactly reassuring uncertainty, “for safety reasons”. You could see that something was wrong when you looked at the Liverpool curve, which was only about half full in the upper tiers, while the Madrilenian curve was almost completely white.
Helicopter footage showed a larger number of people outside the Liverpool side entrances. There have now been reports that Liverpool fans without valid tickets had gained access to the stadium and access had been blocked. Images on social media show fans climbing fences, there have been reports of tear gas being used, the full extent of the chaos and who is responsible remains to be determined. It was always an unpleasant start.
When the ball printed with the wish for peace “Peace – Mir” rolled 36 minutes late, it quickly became clear what Liverpool were after, full of sharpness and determination they chased the ball and opponents, blues after the missed championship? No, Code Red ruled on the freshly laid lawn in Paris. Klopp’s team needed a bit of warm-up time to approach the goal, but after a good fifteen minutes the time had come. It’s no coincidence that Trent Alexander-Arnold was involved in two out of three chances, the right-back pushed the game so dynamically that national coach Flick had to be jealous, and Mo Salah was also involved twice.
There was a brief moment of shock for Liverpool during the warm-up when Thiago Alcántara had to interrupt the programme, but the former Bayern professional, a key figure in Klopp’s team, was able to join in. A possibly future Bavarian then sniffed the Liverpool leadership. Sadio Mané’s shot from a good 16 yards out directed Courtois’ fingertips to the inside of the post in just about the right geometry.
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