Real Madrid Become The Champions Of Europe The 11th Time

Real Madrid Become The Champions Of Europe The 11th Time

Real Madrid edged city rivals Atletico Madrid 5-3 on penalties to win the Champions League for an unprecedented 11th time at the San Siro on Saturday.

Cristiano Ronaldo scored the winner after extra time finished 1-1 as substitute Yannick Carrasco netted a second half leveller to cancel out Sergio Ramos’ 15th minute opener for Real.

Victory makes Zinedine Zidane the seventh manager to win the European Cup both as a player and manager, having led the Galacticos to the trophy on his debut season in 2002. Atleti’s manager Diego Simeone has now lost in two finals following defeat to their city rivals two years ago.

Real got the better of the early exchanges with their neat interplay and fluidity forcing the Rojiblancos into giving away a number of free-kicks in dangerous areas.

Atletico got away with the first one as their goalkeeper Jan Oblak kept out Casemiro with a reflex save. But they weren’t so lucky the second time when Bale flicked on a Toni Kroos free kick for Ramos to prod home.

Simeone’s men began the second-half on the front foot and were duly rewarded when Pepe lunged into Fernando Torres in the box leaving referee Mark Clattenburg with no choice but to point to the spot.

But leading scorer Antoine Griezmann blasted his spot-kick against the underside of the bar to leave the scores unchanged.

However, right-back Juanfran found space down the right in the 79th minute to pick out the electric Carrasco who made no mistakes from five yards out.

Oblak was then called into action late on as the game opened up, fist he made a brilliant one-on-one save from Karim Benzema, before keeping out Ronaldo in a barrage of attacks from Madrid.

But neither side really looked like breaking the deadlock in extra-time, and Juanfran’s missed spot-kick allowed Ronaldo to score the winner.