Real Madrid were crowned kings of Europe for the record 14th time in their rich, unmatched history, after beating Liverpool 1-0 UEFA in Saturday’s Champions League final in Paris.
Vinicius Junior’s second-half goal at the Stade de France clinched the trophy for Madrid after a night marred by problems outside the ground that led to the kick-off being delayed by over half an hour.
The Brazilian winger converted Fede Valverde’s low cross in the 59th minute and Liverpool could not find an equaliser as Jurgen Klopp’s side lost to the Spanish giants in a Champions League final for the second time in five seasons.
Liverpool were seen as favourites to avenge their loss in the 2018 final in Kyiv but Real goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois produced one of the great individual performances to thwart the English club time and again.
DELAYED KICK-OFF
The match kicked off 35 minutes later than the planned 9:00 pm (1900 GMT) start in the French capital after chaos at entrances to the stadium led to thousands of Liverpool fans being unable to get to their seats.
Uefa blamed the build-ups of supporters at the gates of the stadium on “thousands of fans who had purchased fake tickets which did not work in the turnstiles”.
Police also fired tear gas as a handful of younger fans could be seen trying to scale fences around the perimetre of the stadium.
The final was only moved to the French capital after Saint-Petersburg was stripped of the game following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
