Champions League Final 2018

The Final Whistle:Real Madrid Beats Liverpool, 3-1

                                  The Real Madrid of Alfredo di Stefano, this is now a team that has won the European Cup three times in a row. In 2016, it saw off Atletico Madrid on penalties, in 2017, Juventus, in a 4-1 romp; and now, in 2018, a 3-1 win against Liverpool.

                              The victory was Madrid’s third in a row in the tournament, a feat unseen in the competition since Bayern Munich won three consecutive European Cups from 1974-76. It gave Madrid 13 titles over all, extending its Champions League record, and four in the past five years.

Gareth Bale's overhead-kick goal, only minutes after he entered as a substitute, restored Real Madrid's lead in the second half.

                                   Gareth Bale’s two goals off the bench — one a wonder, the other a blunder — gave Real Madrid a 3-1 victory in the Champions League final on Saturday.While Bale was the hero, the final was a nightmare for Liverpool goalkeeper Loris Karius. He was at fault for Madrid’s first goal, when he threw the ball directly onto the foot of Madrid’s Karim Benzema, who redirected it in, and also for the third, when he allowed a knuckling long-distance shot by Bale to slip through his hands.

Mohamed Salah was forced out of the Champions League final in the first half after injury his left shoulder in a fall.

Salah, Liverpool’s leading goalscorer with 44 goals in all competitions this season, landed heavily on his left shoulder after a challenge with Sergio Ramos.

The Egyptian forward tried to get up but couldn’t shake off the injury and was in tears as he walked off the pitch in the European final.

Early reports state that Salah suffered a dislocated shoulder in the challenge, which will mean he is in a race against time to be for the 2018 World Cup in a few weeks.

Ramos will no doubt receive plenty of questions as to his role in Salah’s injury as the Spanish defender made sure Liverpool’s main man hit the floor hard and locked his right arm in during the duel.

All of the focus will now be on Salah to see if he can be fit enough to play for Egypt at the World Cup this summer.

Salah is the main man for the Pharaohs, as he helped them qualify for their first World Cup since 1990.

After all, the victory was Madrid’s third in a row in the tournament. It gave Madrid 13 titles over all, extending its Champions League record, and four in the past five years.

Expect in the Champions League Final

• Goals. Liverpool set a tournament record this season with 46. Their player to watch is Mohamed Salah, the Egyptian striker who led the Premier League in scoring and has 44 goals in all competitions. Real Madrid counters with its Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo, the leading scorer in Champions League history (120 goals in 152 appearances).

• Ronaldo scored 15 goals in 12 Champions League games this season. One more on Saturday would make him the only player to score in four Champions League finals.

• Today’s referee is a Serb, Milorad Mazic. He is no stranger to big games, having worked four games in the Champions League this season and last year’s Confederations Cup final between Germany and Chile. Next month, he will call games in his second straight World Cup. If his day goes well, you won’t notice him.

• Real Madrid is looking to extend its record by winning a 13th Champions League title, and to become the first team since Bayern Munich (1974-76) to claim three in a row.

• “We’ll never live this again,” Real Madrid Manager Zinedine Zidane said Friday. “We’ll live other moments but we’ll never have today and tomorrow again. We need to take advantage. If there’s pressure, well, that’s life. It makes it better.”

• Liverpool is chasing its sixth Champions League trophy, which would move it ahead on Bayern Munich and Barcelona on the all-time list. Only Madrid and A.C. Milan, with seven, have more. The Reds’ last visit to the final was in 2007 (a loss to Milan). Their last triumph was in 2005, when Liverpool rallied from a 3-0 halftime deficit to beat Milan on penalties — a game that has become known as the Miracle of Istanbul.

• “This club has it in its DNA to win big things,” Liverpool Manager Jürgen Klopp said Friday. “We are here because we are Liverpool. We cannot try to fight on their level, but tactics in football are there to bring an opponent onto your level.”

• “You’ll Never Walk Alone” is Liverpool’s most famous song, but you may hear another one over and over today. It’s “Allez Allez Allez,” and Rory tracked it to its source in 1980s Italian disco earlier this week.