For a long time, Real Madrid's trips to the Champions League have been like high-wire acts. How come the Spanish giants don't trip and fall? But they don't.
As Carlo Ancelotti raised the giant trophy for the fifth time, Real won it for the fifteenth time. Dani Carvajal and Vinicius Jr. scored late goals at Wembley to beat Borussia Dortmund's brave charge.
A lot of people were having fun while the fireworks went off over the field. The ending of a well-known play was also well-known.
"If you've seen one of these victories, you've seen them all," but many of the teams Real has lost to in the last few years—most notably Atletico Madrid and Liverpool—will understand how painful it must have been for Dortmund as they walked alone through Wembley, their beautiful fans lighting up the stadium with color and making it reverberate with their noise.
Real played badly in the first half because they were scared by Dortmund's speed and energy. They were on edge the whole time and somehow tied the game at halftime.
If Karim Adeyemi had shot instead of trying to get around Thibaut Courtois, the Real Madrid goalkeeper, he would have been through and scored. He will also think about whether he could have done better with another chance that was stopped.
Niclas Fullkrug's shot hit the inside of the post and went back out. After the break, Courtois stopped the scorer with a strong header.
It seemed more and more likely that Real would make it through and win, even when they looked like they were in a lot of trouble, like when they played Manchester City in the quarterfinals and Bayern Munich in the last four.
Real Madrid is the unstoppable winner in the Champions League. Because Ancelotti is their coach, they have a team of players who know how to do their job.
They showed it again when Dortmund blinked 16 minutes from the end. Carvajal met Toni Kroos' corner and glanced a header past Gregor Kobel, the goalkeeper, and Mats Hummels, the defender, who was tempted to risk getting sent off to stop the shot.
It was over. Vinicius Jr. quickly added a second to make sure that Real fans could enjoy victory in the competition where they are the clear favorite.
Those of us who have been following Real's progress in the Champions League for a while now know what to expect.
We remember seeing them sneak past foes Atletico Madrid to win 4-1 at Lisbon's Stadium of Light in 2014, thanks to Sergio Ramos's equalizer in the 93rd minute. It was Ancelotti's first Champions League title at the club.
In Paris two years ago, Courtois had one of the best goalkeeping games of all time. It made Liverpool's Mohamed Salah especially sad, and Vinicius Jr. scored the game-winning goal.
Though it would be easy to call Real lucky, this happens too often for that to be a fair statement. At halftime, a straw poll of neutrals at Wembley would have strongly supported a Real win, even though they had played terrible.
Real may have had a lot of bad games, but they ended up adding another chapter to their long and interesting past. So True. This is Carlo Ancelotti.
During the whole thing, the manager, who is a master at getting great players to work together, worked it out with the help of the people he was in charge of, including having a long talk with Carvajal on the sidelines near halftime.
If his problems with Real were making him feel stressed, he didn't show it, and he shouldn't have. He is the only one who really knows what he has and what it has done for him in the past. They did it once more.
The Italian has been beating his peers in this game for twenty years. Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp, two of the most well-known coaches of the last few years, haven't even come close to his record of success.
At night, Real celebrated and looked forward to a bright future. Kylian Mbappe will likely lead that future when he finally moves to the Bernabeu, which is a scary thought for anyone who wants to stop them from getting their 16th win next season.
Though English player Jude Bellingham may have had a quiet night, it was nothing compared to his great first season at Real, where he won the Champions League, La Liga, the Spanish Super Cup, and the Player of the Year award.
The 20-year-old had a tough game at Wembley, but he did set up Vinicius Jr.'s second goal and missed a great chance himself when the score was 1-0.
Real will rely on Bellingham going forward, and England boss Gareth Southgate will be hoping that a Champions League medal will give his team a boost going into Euro 2024.
When Kroos left, he was joined by Carvajal, Nacho, and late replacement Luka Modric in helping Real win their sixth Champions League title. This tied the record set by Paco Gento, another legendary Real player.
The last three are still likely to be at the Bernabeu next season and have something to offer because Real Madrid keeps changing the past.
Without Mbappe, who would have thought they wouldn't come back and win the Champions League again in a year?
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