A match for the ages in the UEFA Champions League final saw the Spanish clubs Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid battle it out. In the end, “Los Blancos” came out the victors.
Battle is the perfect definition for what took place at the Estadio da Luz in Lisbon on Saturday evening, when local Cristiano Ronaldo and his Real Madrid teammates came marching in to face-off their rivals from across town, Atletico Madrid.
Both teams had much to lose and a lot on the line, but as is common in cases such as this, Real was the heavy favorite and had a lot to prove one last time in 2014.
All in all this was a rewarding season for both teams, with Atletico managing to “steal” La Liga from fixtures Real and Barcelona, who have won for the last few years (always good to mix it up).
Not many predicted Atletico Madrid as Spanish Champions for this season. It was not really in the cards for the so-called experts, but Diego Simeone’s team had other ideas. Not only did they take it all in Spain, they reached the UEFA Champions League final against all odds, with no major superstar in their roster.
For Real Madrid, the pressure of not losing another title was a real one. They had the added issue of having one of Portugal’s favorite sons in their lineup, who was hungry and determined to give not only his fans but his home audience the thrill of taking “La Decima”, the 10th UEFA Champions League title. This is something no other team has done.
In the end, it took 120 minutes for Real Madrid to take the UEFA Champions League title from rivals Atletico and the 4-1 end result doesn’t really speak of the drama that took place on the field.
Godín scored first (36th minute) for Atletico and for a moment it looked like things were once again going for Simeone’s squad, who were coming from the high of winning La Liga just a week ago, however, Ramos scored a spectacular header in the 93rd minute.
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Then the UEFA Champions League went into overtime and it was all Real Madrid in the final. Bale scored in the 110th and Marcelo in the 117th, though the icing in the cake for “Los Blancos” came when Cristiano Ronaldo put it away for Real in the 120nd minute.
It was a historic day in Lisbon for the UEFA Champions League final, with local hero Cristiano Ronaldo realizing one of his life long dreams and winning “La Decima” for Real Madrid in front of more than 65,000 fans, many of whom came to cheer him on. Real Madrid are European Champions 2014.
[Image via Real Madrid/Twitter]