Well, damn. Real made it look routine as they put four past Buffon (none of them his fault), when Juve had shipped only three in their previous 12 ECL games. The first half was fairly even, with Ronaldo's deflected effort (it may have beaten Buffon anyway) canceled out by a magnificent bicycle kick goal from Mandzukic. In the second half, things got Real. They dominated. I don't remember a shot on goal from Juve, and only one or two off target. Real could have had more. Depressing stuff, as Ronaldo preened and strutted after his goals, and the game got chippier and chippier. Juve got frustrated and somehow Kroos's performance after a perfectly understandable effort from Cuadrado to get to the ball so he could take a throw-in convinced the referee to give a second yellow to Cuadrado. No matter; it was 3-1 by then and in fact Juve seemed to play better with 10. Better, but not well.
I am not sure what was different after the break. But in neither half did Dybala impose himself on this game, and that was key. I'd seen signs of vulnerability in the Monaco games, but Real cut Juve's vaunted defense to ribbons. Real was clearly the better team and deserved the cup. Bale got his chance to run around in Wales and act relevant towards the end, but this game was won by Casemiro, Modric, and Kroos, as far as I'm concerned. They cut off the pipeline forward for Juve, and cycled the ball around and up to an overlapping Marcelo or to Benzema, Ronaldo, and Isco. Their defenders were better today than Juve's as well.
Juventus is 2 for 9 in ECL finals. Who knows when they'll be there again?
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