Gareth Bale has only just come on in place of the disappointing Isco. He wears in the penalty area, alongside Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo, reconstituting the BBC trio which delights the Madrid press, in response to FC Barcelona’s MSN.
The Brazilian Marcelo, from the left wing, sends an aerial cross towards the surface. Benzema and Ronaldo are too advanced. A meter behind them, the Welshman also understands that the trajectory of the ball will pass behind his back, unless he tries a crazy gesture.
Let him try: he rises with his back to goal to volley the ball with his left foot, throws himself very high and hits the ball as it comes, which goes almost perpendicularly. Loris Karius, the Liverpool goalkeeper, surprised by the madness of the gesture, is irreparably lobed.
Something from Zidane and Cristiano
It was a stunning goal that was scored that evening, May 26, 2018 at the Olympic Stadium in kyiv, in the 64th minute of the Champions League final between Liverpool and Real Madrid. On the sidelines, Zinedine Zidane, the coach of Real, does not hide how impressed he is by this goal.
He himself had been the author, in 2002 in Glasgow, of a comparable volley goal, not in the form, but in the audacity with which the gesture was executed. Having become a coach, his relations with Gareth Bale are not always easy, but the Frenchman admits that he has found a successor in this regard.
Gareth Bale celebrates his aerial goal by flying towards the corner flag then lets himself slide face down on the lawn. His teammates pounce on him: Marcelo, the author of the pass, then Kroos, Sergio Ramos, Casemiro, Benzema, Ronaldo, Varane, Nacho…
Among them, Cristiano Ronaldo was able to appreciate as a connoisseur. Two months earlier, the Portuguese scored a very comparable goal in Turin: a perfect kickback against Juventus in the quarter-final first leg, acclaimed as the best goal of the year. Bale’s body language is probably less graceful, but still spectacular.
The Liverpool players thought they had done the hardest part ten minutes earlier by equalizing through Sadio Mané. But the Reds are not spared fate during this Ukrainian evening. Their best player, the Egyptian Mohamed Salah, was forced out after half an hour of play, victim of an armbar from Sergio Ramos who dislocated his shoulder.
The pass of three
In the second period, it was goalkeeper Loris Karius who acted up. He throws a ball in the hand towards a teammate, but did not see Karim Benzema, at his side, who extends his leg to deflect the trajectory of the ball and watch it roll towards the goal. The last Frenchman to score in the Champions League final was Zinedine Zidane…
At 2-1 for Real, the Welshman, in full confidence, sends a ball from the left that the unfortunate Karius sees slipping on his gloves. If the Welshman is having a dream evening, this is a nightmare for the goalkeeper. Redsguilty of two big mistakes.
Ten days after the final, the German was diagnosed with a concussion which would have been caused by a blow to the temple that Sergio Ramos had dealt him at the start of the second period. No doubt the explanation for his feverishness. We therefore wonder who, in this third consecutive European title for Real, is the real hero: the aerial Gareth Bale or the obscure Sergio Ramos?
This goal responds to that of Ray Kennedy in 1981, which allowed Liverpool to beat Real Madrid at the Parc des Princes, and gave the English club their third European Champion Clubs’ Cup.
In 2022, the two clubs meet for the third time in the final. This was to take place in Moscow, but it will finally be organized at the Stade de France. Liverpool see it as a good omen.
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