Real Madrid make history

Real Madrid win third straight Champions League 

Real Madrid beat Liverpool 3-1 and won the 2018 Champions League, the third consecutive and the 13th total. This is the first time ever a coach wins third straight Champions League as Zidane was able to record the treble with Real Madrid. Gareth Bale is also the first ever substitute to score a brace in a Champions League final. 

Liverpool had arguments but fell short ultimately. It has been a very good season for the Reds and they can look ahead to the future. As for Real Madrid the club imposes in the world as the best ever team. 

Coach Zidane on the win:

We wanted to win everything at the start of the season. We can’t be too pleased with our efforts in LaLiga or the Copa, but we’ll take away what we’ve achieved today. We have to congratulate the players because what they’re doing isn’t easy. I have no words. This squad has no limits.  “We have to congratulate the players because what they’re doing isn’t easy. I have no words.

The secret to winning is incredible talent and hard work. They are very good players but we very extremely hard. It’s a team full of enthusiasm and hunger and they’ve shown it yet again. We got to the final by beating PSG, Juventus and Bayern and now we’ve overcome Liverpool. There’s no secret, just hunger, and knowing that nobody else has won what we’ve won.

I only think about what we’re doing now and what we got from the game. Cristiano Ronaldo has to stay, there’s no question about that. He’s a Real Madrid player and there are no words for what he’s done. If he said that, he said it and that’s it. Maybe in three or four days he will say something else, but I’ll stick with what we’re doing now”.

Coach Liverpool Klopp:

“Congratulations to Real Madrid, [it’s] not to forget they won the Champions League tonight. Of course it was a big moment in the game. I know if you say something like that after a game you lost, it sounds like you are a little bit a bad loser but it was, for me, kind of a harsh challenge; it’s like wrestling a little bit and it’s unlucky then that Mo fell on his shoulder. It’s a serious injury; worse, a really serious injury.

The shock of the boys was obvious, we dropped a little bit deep and Real tried to use that for positive momentum, until we settled a little bit. It was quite difficult but 0-0 at half-time, we could adjust a few things – defending half-spaces, which we did before that really well, and then playing more football. And then the other decisive moments were the goals; they were quite strange, that’s how it is. We all know the result is 3-1 Real Madrid and that’s why we are not in the best mood obviously.

It was a football game. We buy players, we sell players, we do exactly the same like Real Madrid, only maybe a little bit different opportunities but I’m fine with our opportunities. I really think – and it’s not a problem because nobody talks about it anymore – but if things would have been not that bad for us tonight we could have won the game. That’s how it is.

We were there, we were here, we did the things we are good in and, if they all stay on the pitch, we don’t make these kinds of mistakes – all if – then we can win the game. But now, things went how they went and we have to accept that, that’s all.”