AC Jimbo and co reflect on a 12th European Cup for Real Madrid after a breathless Champions League final in Cardiff. Where next for Juventus? And is it now time to recognise Zinédine Zidane as one of the managerial greats?And lo, it’s the final Football Weekly of the season. My, how time flies. Continue reading...
The foundation for the Champions League final win was laid by excellent work down the right flank which overwhelmed the converted wide players featuring on the Juventus leftThe key feature of the opening stages of the Champions League final on Saturday was Real Madrid suffering down their right flank. Luka Modric was forced to cover a huge amount of space, and the right-back Dani Carvajal was overloaded and overpowered by Mario Mandzukic. By the end of the night, however, Real ran out comfortable winners – with Modric and Carvajal crucial in their attacking play.It is rare to see a European final contested between two teams using such flexible systems. Zinedine Zidane’s use of Isco rather than a half‑fit Gareth Bale...
Real Madrid’s coach does not say much but when he does people listen, and his second Champions League win underlined how attuned he is to his playersOn his 20th Champions League night, Zinédine Zidane left with his second European Cup – as many as Pep Guardiola, José Mourinho or Sir Alex Ferguson. It was way after midnight by the time Sergio Ramos carried it out of Cardiff and Zidane had already departed, slipping away quietly, pausing only to embrace the Juventus manager, Massimiliano Allegri, as he went. As the Real Madrid players paraded the trophy around the pitch Zidane had stood aside with his wife, watching them, a fond look on his face. “The key is that they get on...
The Italian legend will feel pain once more after losing in his third Champions League final, against Real Madrid, in what may well prove his last chanceGianluigi Buffon stood with his hands on his hips, staring vacantly into the distance and not moving for what felt like an age. Behind him the Real Madrid supporters were raucously celebrating their third goal and their second in the space of three minutes, flooring Juventus and leaving Buffon looking like a man who knew that the dream was over long before the clock had ticked down.This was anything but the “perfect finale” Buffon had talked about 24 hours earlier, when the 39-year-old expressed his hope that he would get his hands on the...
Zinedine Zidane came up with a plan in August to protect his star man for the vital games and Ronaldo delivered with two goals in the Champions League finalJust when you thought it might be all about the man it’s never about, it was about the man it’s always about. In the buildup to this final, Casemiro had insisted that he’s there to “plug holes”, claiming that it is robbing the ball, not scoring goals, that brings him pleasure, and yet he had just reached a higher plane, thumping in the shot that put Real Madrid back into the lead and looked set to bring the night in Cardiff to a close. Three minutes later, though, another man stepped centre-stage....