Author: Mark Szczuka

Photos by Stephen Gormley (Red Eye)

Real Madrid secured their 3^rd Champions League Final in a row, and 4^th in 5 seasons, with a 3-1 win over Liverpool in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev. It all really came down in the end to 4 key events:

1. Liverpool’s and English Premiership’s top scorer this season, Mo Salah, being taken off injured after less than 30 minutes with a shoulder injury following a challenge from Sergio Ramos
2. A horrendous goalkeeping blunder by Liverpool’s German keeper Loris Karius who threw the ball out straight into the path of Benzema to score early in the 2^nd half
3. An amazing over-head kick goal by Gareth Bale (very similar to the one scored by Ronaldo in the previous year’s final, which coincidentally came within the same 63^rd minute of the match!)
4. Another awful mistake by keeper Karius who failed miserably to punch a speculative shot by Bale and instead let the ball through into the goal

Lots of questions followed the Final:

1. Will Salah recover in time to make the Egypt team for the World Cup in Russia?
2. Will Bale stay at Real Madrid?
3. Will Karius stay at Liverpool?

One question surely not raised by anyone following the final though was about the future of Madrid’s manager Zidane. Yet, just 5 days after the final, Zizou shocked the footballing world by announcing his immediate resignation. The reason he gave was that he felt the team needed a fresh approach in order to continue their dominance in Europe and to get back to being dominant in Spain, following Barca’s double La Liga and Copa del Rey title victories this year.