Real Madrid did the unthinkable, the unfathomable, the wildest among the wildest things to imagine when it comes to club football. It didn’t even feel real; it felt like a fallacy – three Champions League titles in a row. But in Kyiv, it was Real Madrid’s reality.
Zinedine Zidane’s Real Madrid did it against Liverpool, with a 3-1 win. Gareth Bale scored two outstanding goals, coming off the bench after Karim Benzema had opened the scoring for Madrid. Sadio Mane’s equaliser had briefly brought Liverpool back
in the game, but Gareth Bale stormed in and blew it away from their reach.
During the celebrations, Marco Asencio and Isco were joking that it doesn’t feel as good as it should anymore – of course, because they had won it so many times by that time (Isco four, Asencio two).
In that moment, only Marcelo and Cristiano Ronaldo himself knew that the club’s greatest ever marksman had already played the last game for Los Blancos.
Cristiano took part in the celebrations at Cibeles the next morning and even promised to meet the fans there next year, but he was already gone. The closest pop culture reference is probably Michael Scott leaving The Office (US) a day early, pretending it’s business as usual. Only Jim Halpert knew what was really going on.
