Soccer is a lapidary sport, since deserved goals are not enough to win glory. It is possible to be inferior to the rival but to have the accuracy to score a single goal and that is enough to win. This is similar to what happened in the UEFA Champions League final between Real Madrid and Liverpool, in which the Spanish team won its 14th title in this tournament.
The tactical duel between the Real Madrid and Liverpool benches clearly leaned towards Jurgen Klopp. Carlo Ancelotti became the winningest coach in the history of the Champions League, with 4 victories, ahead of Bob Paisley and Zinedine Zidane, but in the final duel of the 2021-2022 season in Saint-Denis his team suffered more than it enjoyed throughout the 90 minutes.
For Klopp and Liverpool, there will remain the feeling of having done almost everything right in the match that decided the winner of the UEFA Champions League. However, just one detail escaped them: being able to put the ball in the goal defended by Belgian goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois.
Real Madrid Champions League winner: Thibaut Courtois and 10 others
It should be pointed out without any qualms. The best player of the Champions League Final, and of the season itself for Real Madrid, is Belgian goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois. According to Sofascore statistics, he made 9 saves over the 9 minutes, 7 of them inside the box and at least 3 of them with a high degree of difficulty.
Undoubtedly, the fact that a team’s goalkeeper becomes the key to its triumph is a clear x-ray that shows that the winner spent much more time defending and suffering than attacking. Part of Real Madrid’s greatness is this: knowing how to suffer and yet succeed, and having world-class players capable of tipping the scales in their favor without deserving it.
Thibaut Courtois, Real Madrid. (Julian Finney/Getty Images)
Trent Alexander-Arnold gives as well as takes away for Liverpool
If there was one player who played a very good game at Liverpool it is the English side back. However, he will have to live with and overcome the fact that he made a few mistakes, and one of them contributed to his team losing the Champions League Final.
In Vinicius Jr‘s goal, in the 59th minute, Real Madrid started the play on Liverpool’s left flank, which made the Reds focus their attention on it, however, Federico Valverde broke everything with a cross that reached the other flank, where Alexander-Arnold neglected his mark and allowed Vinicius Junior to arrive free to push the ball and score the championship goal.
Trent Alexander-Arnold, Liverpool. (Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
Liverpool beats Real Madrid in the game, BUT not on the scoreboard
The high pressure suffocates Real Madrid. If anything characterizes Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool, it is the physical intensity they bring to their matches. Thus, both teams played with the same formation, 4-3-3, so there were individual pairings all over the field.
Thus, from the very beginning of the play with Courtois, Real Madrid were pressed relentlessly. Neither Militao, nor Alaba, let alone Kroos, Casemiro and Modric had time and space to build the Merengues‘ game, so they had to resort to direct play, in which Benzema, Valverde and Vinicius are not specialists and ended up losing to the Reds‘ defense. So it is understandable that Real Madrid had only 4 shots on goal in 90 minutes, compared to 24 from Liverpool.
Liverpool’s right side almost destroyed Real Madrid. The English team’s attacking play was based on putting men together on the right flank. Specifically Trent Alexander-Arnold, Jordan Henderson and Mohamed Salah, who generated numerical superiority over Ferland Mendy to generate damage to Courtois’ net.
To Mendy’s rescue, Casemiro, Alaba, but not Kroos or Vinicius, which generated disorder in Real Madrid’s central lanes. Many of Liverpool’s goal actions, saved by Thibaut Courtois, started on the wing and ended with a shot in the central lanes, either outside or inside the box.
Sadio Mané’s feast that only lacked the dessert. The Senegalese is at an impressive level. He is not only a striker capable of scoring, he also generates a lot of play for Liverpool and not necessarily in the box. Mané abandoned his position as a center forward and moved back a few meters to position himself between Casemiro and Real Madrid’s line of center backs.
From that position, between the lines, Thiago Alcantara, Robertson, Alexander-Arnold and Fabinho, tired to find Sadio Mané free to create damage for Real Madrid, either with shots, like the one Courtois prevented from ending in a goal in the 20th minute, or with passes to teammates like Salah and Luis Diaz. Unfortunately, he only failed to crown his performance.
Thus, despite having dominated the vast majority of the match, with 54 percent ball possession and an abysmal difference in their favor in shots on goal, Liverpool fell by the wayside and ended up succumbing to Real Madrid’s strange and mythical pact with the Champions League, a tournament that seems to have been made just for them.
Sadio Mane and Casemiro, Liverpool vs Real Madrid, UEFA Champions League. (Julian Finney/Getty Images)
