Two players, two different emotions, one unbelievable night as Madrid beat Liverpool

Hey, I know the World Cup is around the corner so I thought I'd start my football reports with the Champions League Final in Kyiv between Liverpool and Real Madrid. Both teams have a combined 17 Champions League titles (including previous formats) and even met in the 1981 European Cup final in which Liverpool won. For Liverpool, it is their first Champions League final since 2007 when they were defeated by AC Milan in Athens. The last time they won was in 2005 beating the same Milan team after coming back from 3-0 down at halftime to score three lightening goals in 15 minutes and played on to win 3-2 on penalties in Istanbul. Meanwhile, Real have won 12 Champions League titles and won 3 of the last 4 titles against their inter-city rivals Atletico Madrid and defeating Juventus in last year's final. This was the sixth time that Liverpool and Real Madrid would ever meet in Champions League history, the other 5 matches including 1981 final, were the 2008-9 Round of 16 when Liverpool defeated Madrid in both games. Then returned the favour in the 2014-15 Group Stage in which Madrid settled the score from 5 years earlier. 

Both teams also had different roads to the Champions League final. Liverpool had to go through one round of qualifying defeating 1899 Hoffenheim 6-3 on aggregate. They were then drawn in Group E against NK Maribor of Slovenia, Spartak Moscow of Russia and Sevilla of Spain. They won the group undefeated with 3 wins and 3 draws. Their knockout campaign started with a 5-0 aggregate win over Porto with all the goals coming in the first leg of the match. Their next opponents were Premier League rivals and favourite to win the Cup, Manchester City. Liverpool won the first leg 3-0 at Anfield with all the goals scored in the first half. The second leg was a game of two halves with City dominating in the first half scoring a goal with only two minutes into the game. Still, a couple of decisions not going the way of City sent their manager Pep Guardiola towards the stands, which was the result of arguing with officials and said something to them which caused Pep to be sent to the stands for the remainder of the match. Liverpool took advantage and scored two goals in the second half and sent Man City out of the cup. Their Semi-final clash was against A.S Roma who was becoming storied underdogs after defeating Barcelona in the previous round after turning around a first-leg deficit to beat them. Liverpool had all the confidence in the world, and they showed it by scoring 5 goals in 70 minutes. However, with a comfortable lead, Liverpool gave Roma a chance for the second leg by conceding two late goals. The second leg was a nail-biter as Liverpool had a 2-1 lead at halftime looking comfortable, but Roma scored three goals to make it look like a comeback was on, despite the final Roma goal being scored there was a short amount of time left. This made them the first team to do it this way since Bayern Munich in the 2011-12 season.

Meanwhile, Real Madrid had a thorny road which made the experts look at Madrid and say they weren't overwhelming favourites. Because they won last season, they were automatically placed in the group stages. They were drawn with Tottenham Hotspur, Germany's Borussia Dortmund and APOEL from Cyprus in Group H. In what was supposed to be a group of death it became a battle between Madrid and Tottenham. And the big match of that group that astonished the experts was when Tottenham dominated Madrid with a 3-1 win for Spurs and in the end, was crucial. As it made Madrid, the runners-up of the group with 13 points and Spurs winning with 16 points. Their first knockout match was against Paris Saint-Germain in which they defeated the French league champions 5-2 on aggregate to set up a replay of last year's final against Juventus in the quarter-finals. The first leg went 3-0 to Madrid, but in the second leg, Juventus made it 3-3 on aggregate before English referee Michael Oliver notably gave Madrid a late penalty and sent off Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon which sent the whole football world crazy, and yet despite the madness Ronaldo was cool and calm and scored the winning penalty. Madrid had to get the entire story of what happened off their back quickly as they then had to face Bayern Munich in the semi-final. They were shown to have some difficulties as they again struggled for a win as it finished 4-3 on aggregate, but they faced a fierce battle as Munich made Madrid battle for a place after being knocked out by them last season. 

The match preview went from a clash of European Giants to become a battle to see who would win the FIFA Ballon d'Or as it quickly became a battle between Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo and Liverpool's Mo Salah. This is being seen as one of the main audition arenas along with the World Cup and both players playing in Russia. Ronaldo for Portugal and Salah for Egypt. The red-hot favourite at the moment is Salah as he's just taken the football world by storm, he even beat Manchester City's best player Kevin De Bruyne for the PFA Player of the Year.

The final was being hosted in Kyiv and was holding its second major final in 6 years as it was the same venue that held the Euro 2012 Final between Spain and Italy.  The match started off well for Liverpool as they dominated the opening half an hour, including a shot by Trent Alexander Arnold, which was saved by Navas, until disaster and the turning point came around when Liverpool's talisman Mo Salah was taken off with a dislocated shoulder injury after a tangle with Madrid captain Sergio Ramos and replaced by Adam Lallana. After that Madrid started to make their experience show with attempts at the Liverpool goal with the closest being by Benzema which did go in but was given offside. At halftime, it was 0-0 with all to play.

The second half was all Madrid, and they started off with a close chance by Isco 3 minutes into the half as he lobbed Liverpool's Loris Karius but luckily for Liverpool, the ball hit the crossbar. Then Karius created the first of his howlers, he tried to pass it to one of his team-mates, but Benzema stuck his leg out to direct the ball into the back of the net to make it 1-0 Madrid. 5 minutes later Liverpool got a goal that they deserved throughout the match with Sadio Mane equalising from a corner via Dejan Lovren. Then on the hour came on Madrid's secret weapon an in-form and fresh Gareth Bale. Bale soon made manager Zinedine Zidane pay back the opportunity with a bicycle kick goal which left everyone in the stadium standing in shock and disbelief. After that Liverpool still had hope and they chased for another equaliser and Mane had the chance with 20 minutes to go, but his shot didn't curve enough to put it in the net as it hit the post. The final principal act came from Bale as he turned Robertson inside out and struck a shot at which Karius made another mistake this time palming it into the back of the net to make it 3-1. After that, the fight left Liverpool as they had nothing left in their bag of tricks to make a comeback.

When the fulltime whistle went questions were asked about Karius' decisions, and also comparisons were made of Madrid's run of Champions League wins as they became the first team to win 3 back-to-back since Bayern Munich in the mid-1970's. Ina match which became dominated about Ronaldo and Salah the main stars were Bale and Karius. Bad luck, Liverpool there's always next season.

Hope you enjoyed it and I'll be doing reports on the World Cups big matches over the next month. 

KRO Mark