Kings Europe
are a very good team and in the second-half we showed how good we are.
“I’m delighted. I’m top scorer in the Champions League again. It’s been a brilliant season.”
Ronaldo said the turning point was an inspirational halftime speech from Zidane, whose words fired Madrid’s three-goal blitz in the second period.
“Zidane gave us a very positive halftime team talk and told us he really believed in us,” he said.
“It has been an incredible end to the season by us. The players deserve it and so do I.”
Madrid midfielder Toni Kroos was happy to let Ronaldo hog the spotlight, adding: “Everybody knows that Cristiano is very important.
“As a team we played very well in the quarterfinals, the semifinals and today, but you need a guy to score the goals and he did it again.”
Madrid have won the Champions League three times in the last four years and their French forward Karim Benzema said: “It’s amazing, to win one, then two, then three!
“We’ve made history and, there you go, we’re the best team in the world – it’s fantastic.
“I want to keep going like that and win lots of trophies. We live football for this and tonight we’re all delighted.”
It was also a special evening for Madrid’s Gareth Bale, who saluted his team’s historic triumph as the Spanish giants became the first side to retain the trophy for 27 years.
Bale has been hampered by ankle and calf injuries for much of the season, but the Wales forward was able to play a part in his hometown after coming on as a 77th minute replacement for Benzema.
Madrid’s dominant display gives them a 12th Champions League title and makes them the first to win it in successive years since the great AC Milan side of 1989 and 1990.
Bale said the win was just reward for all their hard work this season.
“We have made history. We’ll enjoy this moment now. We needed confidence at halftime and we had to take our chances, which we did,” he said. – AFP