By the end
he could barely walk. He looked as though he played half injured from
his thigh strain. He was some way from his best. And yet, come that
final moment, when Real Madrid needed a penalty to
be scored to win a
record eleventh European Cup, it was, of course, inevitably Cristiano
Ronaldo who stepped up.
Somehow,
he is destined to dominate, even when not at his best. A season which
has often been chaotic, haphazard and saw Rafa Benitez dismissed and a
rookie coach appointed in Zinedine Zidane, ends in a historic
achievement.
As
for their cross city rivals, Atletico, it ends desperately again. In
1974 they came within minutes; in 2014, against Real Madrid, they came
within seconds. Last night they came within a penalty kick of this
trophy. Juanfran, so excellent in the game, was their fall guy hitting
the post on Atletico’s fourth penalty, allowing Ronaldo his moment.
Before him,
Lucas Vazquez, Marcelo, Gareth Bale and Sergio Ramos had all confidently
rolled their penalties into the right-hand corner. Antoine Greizmann,
Gabi and Saul had done the same, but to the left side, for Atletico.
It
was excruciating to watch them miss out again, having disposed of
Bayern and Barcelona and with their commander in chief, Diego Simeone,
managing to hold his own on a fraction on the budget of his opponents.
Yet succumb they did and Real Madrid have transformed a season which
threatened to be awful into something glorious.
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