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Real Madrid offered themselves a fourteenth Champions League against Liverpool on Saturday May 28 (1-0). It is not so much the meager goal of the Brazilian Vinicius which offers the cup to the people of Madrid, as the goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, who knew how to protect his cage against the repeated but vain battering of the English.
The match was to be played in Russia, but the war in Ukraine changed the situation, and it was the Stade de France (Seine-Saint-Denis) which hosted the Champions League final. Real Madrid, by far first in their championship, had a hanging European run, while Liverpool, less disturbed in Europe, finished second in the Premier League, capped on the post by Manchester City.
Injured during the same poster in 2018, which had turned to the advantage of Real, Mohammed Salah wanted revenge. Opposite, Karim Benzema, top scorer in the Champions League and the Spanish championship, who pulled the Merengue out of the rut several times in previous European meetings to lead them to the final, also played the Golden Ball, for which he is anticipated.
Chaos around the Stade de France
From Friday evening, Liverpool supporters were rustling in the Parisian subways and bars. They converged the next day on the fan zone installed in the courtyard of Vincennes, in the east of Paris, designed for 44,000 people and filled, according to the police headquarters. Some supporters also tried to enter the Stade de France without a ticket, others with a ticket but deprived of entry, leading to a forceful intervention by the police and a postponement of around thirty minutes. sending.
But already, at 7 p.m., Place de la Nation looks like a campsite after a festival. It smells of hops, and the floor sticks like in a nightclub. City officials run around with dumpsters that keep filling up as fans play soccer. Drunk meat dries his voice in the sun singing a Pogues classic, or When the Saints with revamped lyrics. All shades of red, sunburn included, move towards the screens, after brief palpations. By dint of recovering plastic cups (pint size), some were able to make a seat. Others lie down on the tarmac and sleep while waiting for the kick-off. The four giant screens installed on the courtyard of Vincennes dictate the tempo well before the match: we boo the images showing the goals of Real or their victory in 2018; we applaud when the red bus arrives at the stadium or when Salah gets off.
Dave drove up from Liverpool with his two friends (whom he lost when they went to the toilet). You can see in his eyes that he started the party the day before and hasn’t stopped since. He predicts 3-1 for his people, “with a goal from Salah and two from Mané”. As for Mary, who made the same trip, she pushes her son’s wheelchair: “He wanted at all costs to see his team play.”
Beer shower and Courtois wall
When the ceremony before the match begins, we can barely hear ourselves shouting as the supporters are singing at the top of their voices. The mostly male crowd sings the club anthem You Never Walk Alone, and becomes tactile. The shower of beers thrown into the air does not bother anyone.
The teams gauge each other timidly until the fifteenth minute, when Liverpool pass the second. Courtois had to intervene on his line to block a deflection from Salah just in front of his goal, then catch a half-hearted strike from the Egyptian shortly after. Five minutes later, with a hook, Sadio Mané erased three defenders at the entrance to the area and offered himself a shot that the Madrid goalkeeper touched this time with the end of the glove, well helped by his right post where the ball went ‘crushed. In legs, the same Mané will still worry the Belgian goalkeeper in front of his goal, obtaining a corner.
Their defense is solid but abused, and the Madrid counters do not take, their rare inspirations ending up crossed out in red. It is therefore against the sense of the game that just before the break, Benzema, well served by a long crossbar, fails to offer a first goal to his team. The Frenchman achieves an unstoppable control, very close to the cages of Alisson then misses his pass, but takes advantage of a scramble of the defense to strike. After consultation with the VAR, the striker is deemed offside, triggering a new shower of happy foam on the court of Vincennes. Between two chants, a few insults, and smoke bombs, some soaked Englishmen only stay upright while shaking their shoulders against those around them.
Returning from the break, Liverpool remained threatening but less precise and Madrid took advantage of it. In the 59th minute, Valverde pushes on his right side, and his long pass finds a lonely Vinicius in the box, who crucifies the goalkeeper, with his right foot and without control. Salah replies a few minutes later with a heavy shot, which a horizontal Courtois manages to deflect. The duel is repeated: by dint of crosses, corners and free kicks deposited in the Spanish area, Salah finds a golden opportunity, a few centimeters from the post but comes up against, once again, the Real goalkeeper, who nevertheless seemed beaten.
Rebelote ten minutes from the end, where a deflected shot is not enough to take the Belgian goalkeeper on the wrong foot. Liverpool may try everything, but the wall is still in its way. Salah has the bitter experience of this again when his hard shot and almost close range is blocked by a sumptuous reflex save, by a Courtois who is congratulated by his teammates, aware that they owe him the victory.
