Champions League Final: Ronaldo Bags Brace As Real Madrid Power Past Juventus In Cardiff (Photos & Video)

Alan Duffy

3rd, June 2017

4 Comments

Real Madrid became the first team to retain the Champions League/European Cup in 27 years, and the first in the Champions League era, after a thoroughly deserved 4-1 win against Juventus in Cardiff, with Cristiano Ronaldo once again the star of the show.

Juventus impressed in the first-half, with their trademark defensive solidity keeping Madrid at bay for long periods.

On 20 minutes, with La Liga champions managed to make the breakthrough, with Ronaldo exchanging passes with Dani Carvajal before producing a superb finish into the bottom corner, albeit via a slight deflection.

That goal was Ronaldo’s 600th for club and country and saw the great man become the first player to score in three separate finals in the Champions League era.

However, just seven minutes later, Juve were level, courtesy of one of the great Champions League goals.

Receiving a headed pass in the box from Gonzalo Higuain, Mario Mandzukic chested the ball down before executing the most delicious of overhead kicks which sailed into the net over Keylor Navas.

After an entertaining first-half, the second period started off far more disjointed and scrappy.

Then, just after the hour-mark, Real once again took the lead via a sizable dollop of luck.

Trying his luck from long-range, Casemiro saw his powerful pick up a wicked deflection from former Juve man Sami Khedira before finding its way past Gig Buffon and into the corner of the Juventus goal.

Just three minutes later, it was 3-1 to Madrid, with Luka Modric’s pull back dinked home by Ronaldo after a superb run from the Portuguese goal-machine.

Two goals behind, Juventus tried to get themselves back into the tie but struggled against a dominant Real side.

Zinedine Zidane sent on Gareth Bale in front of his hometown fans as the Spaniards looked to seal the victory.

Alex Sandro headed just wide late on but the Italians never really looked like clawing back Real’s two-goal advantage.

Late on, sub Juan Cuadrado harshly saw red for a second booking after clashing with Sergio Ramos, who not surprisingly made the most of the incident.

At the death, sub Marco Asensio made it 4-1 after superb work from the outstanding Marcelo as Madrid capped off a dominant second-half display.

However, ultimately it was Zinedine’s charges who would seal their 12th European Cup/Champions League title.

What a season it was been for Ronaldo, adding the Champions League title to his Euro 2016, La Liga and FIFA Club World Cup winner’s medals. Not that bad, eh!?

As for the great veteran Buffon, he once again misses out on a Champions League winner’s medal.

Posted in Champions League, La Liga, Real Madrid, Serie A, Videos

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4 Comments

  1. Joe says:

    Does anyone know why Spanish teams put on their home kit when they win a trophy? If they happen to be wearing the away kit during the match, they change just before lifting the trophy.

    • Nuno says:

      That makes total sense to me… the home kit is the one with the “real colours” of the team. Imagine if United had to play the Europa League final in their blue away kit. Then the winning photo would be of a blue team lifting the trophy… doesn’t look as good to me (is it really only Spanish teams changing?)

  2. Bruno says:

    Told you Ronaldo was going to score!

Leave a Reply to Bruno