Love affair with Big Ears
player to bring on to change things or when to stick.
On this muggy night under the roof in Cardiff, his decision to bring on Marco Asensio was rewarded with a goal almost instantly and the Mallorcan’s star is one that will continue to rise under Zidane’s watchful gaze.
Indeed, on top of going home with the big-eared cup and a glut of records, Real Madrid can also look on this as a changing of the guard.
Pre-match the focus was on James Rodriguez, one of the most-expensive signings in football history who was forced to watch from the stands after not even making the matchday squad.
Asensio, who was selected instead, will be at Madrid for years after James departs this summer. He will be here long after Cristiano Ronaldo has hung up his boots.
And how can one let another victory pass without mentioning him. Ronaldo of the two-goal final, the first man to score in three separate ones, and now of 600 career goals to boot.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s transformation from lanky, spindly winger to hulking, goalscoring robot has been complete for some time but there seems to be a malfunction… age simply isn’t slowing him down.
All in all, Madrid did what Madrid do. It is almost boring to see a team win and win and win and win and win but that is the hardest thing to do.
They win, they retool and they go again. They enjoy unprecedented success by facing different challenges to nearly any other team but overcoming them nonetheless.
“How could I not love you?” they asked. How indeed. For everyone else it will be envy and bitterness but for Real Madrid, twelve times kings of Europe, there is no doubt that it is love.
A love of the European Cup that is unmistakably their competition. – The Independent