Hero’s return for Bale
WELSH TALISMAN IS A CHAMPIONS LEAGUE WINNER WITH MADRID FOR THIRD TIME IN FOUR YEARS AS CARDIFF STAGES MEMORABLE FINAL
SO, you thought Wales v Ireland Grand Slam Saturday could never be bettered?
Well, whisper this very quietly. But 12 years on from that never-to-be-forgotten afternoon in the Welsh sunshine, Cardiff delivered another epic sporting spectacle that might just, might just, have trumped it.
The Champions League final 2017 really was an ‘I was there’ moment for those privileged enough to have witnessed the occasion unfold at the iconic Principality Stadium.
It was just as magical for the tens upon tens of thousands who filled the pubs, bars, restaurants and streets outside – just like that March day in 2005 when there were as many ticketless fans who had ventured into the Welsh capital wanting to be part of the historic moment, as there inside the ground itself.
Back then, Mike Ruddock’s victorious men in red sent a nation into dreamland with a first Grand Slam triumph in fully 27 years. We were in dreamland. An entire nation celebrated well into the night... and the following week, too!
Saturday was about a different sort of pride. This wasn’t about a team representing the wishes of a country.
This was about Cardiff and Wales defying the many doubters and proving to football’s superpowers that we too can be ranked with the elite when it comes to staging the biggest game on the planet.
How Wales delivered, too. Okay, it wasn’t the Gareth Bale final we hoped for and it was probably too one-sided in the second half to be dubbed a footballing classic.
But in every other aspect, every single one of them, this really could not have gone any better for Welsh football.
Games like the final of the Champions League aren’t meant to come to countries as small as ours and cities like Cardiff.
However, the phrase used by First Minister Carwyn Jones to address UEFA bigwigs at the pre-match dinner summed it up perfectly for me.
“Small nation, small city... big welcome,” he told them. Six beautiful but inspiring words that, in Champions League parlance, embody everything about the sense of occasion we witnessed.
There were plenty of cynics waiting, and expecting, Wales to fail.
No chance. The warm Welsh welcome Carwyn spoke of, the magnificent city centre location of the stadium and the truly unbelievable atmosphere created under the roof meant this was win, win, win from first minute to last.
The passion and frenzy created inside the then Millennium when Gethin Jenkins and Kevin Morgan scored the decisive tries during that 2005 Grand Slam game has been unparalleled since.
But with the roof on and the cacophony of noise created by Juventus and Real Madrid fans reverberating around, Saturday night might have taken things onto another level again.
Just getting through the throng of fans in buoyant mood beforehand was almost awe-inspiring in itself. Once inside the ground, Cristiano Ronaldo’s face told the story best.
As he and his Real Madrid teammates walked out 45 minutes before kick-off for their warm-up routines, the man who is supposed to have seen everything looked shocked.
The stadium was already pretty much full. The noise levels were unprecedented. This really was something quite unique unfolding in front of our very eyes.
Typical of Ronaldo that, being the big-match performer he is, he would rise most to the occasion better than anyone else on show and produce a man-of-the-match display.
TV viewers in more than 200 countries across the globe tuned in at some point to focus eyes upon Wales.
From Azerbaijan to Argentina, Brazil to Barbados, China to Canada, they could see this was a Champions League final with a difference.
The Juventus fans were magnificent. Noisy for the most part, humble in defeat, dignified enough to stay behind and watch Sergio Ramos lift the trophy.
Real Madrid supporters were just in celebratory mode. Together afterwards they mingled in the bars and restaurants in the close proximity of the stadium, Italians saluting the Spanish, Madrid followers commiserating Juve. Wonderful camaraderie on Welsh soil.
As for the football itself, well that was pretty special too. Standard wise, the first 45 minutes was possibly as good as anything I have witnessed. For technique, pace, power, goals and athleticism, it hit every height imaginable.
There were also two wonderful goals
to factor in, the first a masterfully crafted move between Ronaldo and Dani Carvajal, Juventus’ equaliser a brilliant overhead kick by Mario Mandzukic.
What happened after that is pretty inexplicable, even 24 or so hours on.
Juventus, the epitome of Italian organisation, resilience and defensive resoluteness, just capitulated and we still don’t know why.
They conceded as many goals in that second-half as they had done during the entire tournament up to that point, so Real’s trophy it was.
If there were two, shall we call them less than perfect notes, they came during that second period.
The first was Gareth Bale, who thousands hoped would deliver the dream in his home city, only having 13 minutes as a substitute and thus not quite having the impact we anticipated.
Still, it was Bale’s third Champions League winner’s medal in the space of four years and that’s not too bad, is it?
The other was unforgivable when Sergio Ramos, having been lightly touched by Juan Cuadrado, went over as if poleaxed by a Ross Moriarty thunder tackle. He rolled around and off went the Juve man.
At a stadium where I have winced at watching rugby’s hardest men, real rib-crunching warriors, collide with 36stone of beef and get up as if nothing has happened, in my view Ramos’ actions shamed football. Even demonstrated everything that is sometimes wrong with the beautiful game.
But that solitary incident shouldn’t be permitted to grab the headlines and take away anything from the epic showpiece Cardiff had just delivered.
Cardiff may have been the smallest city to house the prestigious European final, but the host nation stood up as a giant.
There were two winners from the Champions League 2017. Real Madrid and Wales.
Any time UEFA want to come back, they are more than welcome.