Real strike force faces Juve test
Real Madrid’s irresistible attack slams into Juventus’s seemingly immovable defence today when the free-scoring Spanish aristocrats hope to become the first club to win the Champions League in successive seasons.
Cardiff ’s iconic Millennium Stadium provides a fitting venue for a mouthwatering final full of delicious sub-plots, one of which could see Welsh wizard Gareth Bale make a triumphant return to the valleys of his birth.
Others include Juve keeper Gianluigi Buffon potentially becoming the oldest player to lift the trophy or Real coach Zinedine Zidane, twice a Champions League runner-up with Juve, contriving to break the hearts of those who once idolised him.
Centre stage, as he so often is, will be Cristiano Ronaldo, whose lust for goals has taken Los Blancos to within touching distance of a 12th European title after they took their 11th a year ago by beating Atletico Madrid.
Arrigo Sacchi’s great Milan side were the last to be crowned European champions for a second year running in 1990, but since the competition morphed into the Champions League that feat has proved beyond even the most expensively assembled teams.
Real, crowned La Liga champions for the first time since 2012 last week, are the favourites after banging in 32 goals in 12 games in the competition this season.
Ronaldo has scored 10 of them, and two more in the final would see him move above Barcelona’s Lionel Messi to top this season’s Champions League scoring chart.
The irrepressible Portuguese is the only player to have scored more than 100 goals in the competition. But he still appears to want more. “Too much humility isn’t good. We have to prove our character and who is the best,” Ronaldo said this week as he eyed a third Champions League triumph with Real to add to the one he secured with Manchester United in 2008.
“The final is won by scoring goals. I have the feeling that we are going to play a great game and we are going to win.”
He is not wrong about the goals: No Champions League final has ended goalless since Milan beat Juve on penalties in 2003.
Yet while Ronaldo’s infectious confidence will sweep through Zidane’s side, Serie A title winners Juventus are unbeaten in Europe this season and are going to their second final in three years having conceded only three goals.