Real Madrid retain Champions League: Here are records broken!
Real Madrid extended their domination of Europe after winning their third successive Champions League title with a 3-1 victory over Liverpool. Gareth Bale found the back of the net twice after coming on as a substitute to seal the victory for the Los Blancos. Mo Salah had to leave the game mid-way after suffering an injury. Here are the records broken in this fixture.
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has now lost six out of his seven major finals as a manager. Klopp has now lost the Europa League final with Liverpool, the Champions League final with Liverpool and Dortmund, the League Cup with Liverpool and two German cups with Dortmund. His only victory came in the DFB-Pokal with Dortmund in 2012.
Zinedine Zidane is the first manager to win 3 consecutive Champions League trophy. What makes his feat even more impressive is that he did it in his first 3 seasons as a coach. Zidane has won a trophy every 97 days on an average since taking charge of Madrid in January 2016. He has won 9 out of the 13 trophies on offer.
English teams have had a dreadful time in UEFA club competition finals against Spanish teams. Premier League clubs have lost their last 7 UEFA finals against La Liga clubs. This list includes 4 Champions League finals and 3 Europa League finals.
Real Madrid are the first team to win the Champions League in three successive seasons since Bayern Munich achieved the feat between 1974 and 1976. Madrid fielded the same starting XI as in the 2016-17 Champions League final. This is the first time that a team has started with the same 11 players in two different Champions League finals.
Karim Benzema has now scored four goals against Liverpool in the Champions League. He has gone level with former Chelsea striker Didier Drogba who also has 4 goals under his belt. No player has managed more goals against the Reds. Karim Benzema is the 1st French player to score in a Champions League final since Zinedine Zidane in 2002.
Substitutions by Zidane worked perfectly for him. Gareth Bale is now the first player in the history of the Champions League to come on as a substitute and score twice in a final. Bale gave Real Madrid the lead just 122 seconds after coming on as a substitute. His goal is being touted as one of the best goals of this season.
Karius had the worst night of his career. He made two errors leading to goals in the Champions League final against Real Madrid. Karius made more errors in the final than he did in his previous 32 competitive appearances for Liverpool this season.
Liverpool forward Mane needed only 11 appearances to reach 10 Champions League goals. This is a joint-record in the competition with Liverpool team-mate Roberto Firmino and Adriano. The Reds are the first team in the history with three players to score 10 plus goals in a single Champions League season (Salah 10, Firmino 10, Mane 10).
Cristiano Ronaldo is the first player in Champions League history to win the title on 5 different occasions. The Portuguese now has 4 Champions League winner medals from Real Madrid and one during his time at Manchester United.
