Football – Real Madrid beats Dortmund with a late goal and wins the 15th European Cup

(corrects the 10th triumph in a row to the 11th in the fourth paragraph)

By Mitch Phillips

LONDON (Reuters) – Real Madrid crowned themselves European kings for the 15th time in Saturday’s Champions League final against Borussia Dortmund at a roaring Wembley Stadium. The record was extended further as the team won with a 2-0 victory over Borussia Dortmund, the World Cup final, in a roaring finale. The Madridistas were inferior for an hour but then showed their superiority.

After Dortmund created several good chances, especially in a one-sided first half, but missed them, Real took control when Dani Carvajal headed in from a corner in the 74th minute and Vinicius Jr. scored the second goal nine minutes later.

With this victory, the Catalans lifted the trophy for the sixth time in eleven seasons, equalling the same streak as the team with which Real’s love affair with the European Cup began: they had won the first five editions of Europe’s elite competition from 1956, and another in 1966.

Amazingly, this was Real’s eleventh consecutive triumph in a European final – their last defeat came 41 years ago in the Cup Winners’ Cup final against Aberdeen – and they have now won the most important final more than twice as many times as the next best team.

For Carlo Ancelotti, who also won the cup twice as a player with AC Milan, it was also his fifth success as a coach and thus a new record.

“I will never get used to it because it was difficult, very difficult, more than expected,” said the Italian. “We were better in the second half – this is a dream that continues.”

Carvajal summed up the game perfectly after his team pulled one back in a seemingly endless series of late turnarounds to seal a La Liga-Champions League double.

“After the first half, we didn’t even deserve to go into the dressing room with a draw,” he said. “But we came out of the first half alive and knew we would have our moment… and here it is.”

Apart from the goal, the Germans played a dream first half in every respect.

Their first good chance came after 21 minutes when Karim Adeyemi shot too wide after going around goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois.

Then numerous other chances followed: Niclas Fuellkrug hit the post and Courtois saved low shots from Julian Brandt and Marcel Sabitzer. This was only his fifth appearance in a season marked by injuries.

YELLOW WALL

Dortmund had attacked their own fans, who were celebrating their team’s first Champions League final since 2013 and only their third ever, doing their best to recreate the atmosphere of the yellow walls of their Westfalenstadion with noise and a unified roar that shook the stadium to its foundations.

Madrid seemed livelier from the start in the second half: Dortmund goalkeeper Gregor Kobel saved a free kick from Toni Kroos and Carvajal headed just over.

Courtois then parried a diving header from Fuellkrug and, to the surprise of no one in the stadium, Dortmund soon regretted their misses as the 5ft 8in full-back Carvajal rose from a Kroos corner and headed the ball home.

For German midfielder Kroos, the assist was a fitting end to his final game for the club, while Carvajal, Nacho and Luka Modric equalled Real’s Francisco Gento’s record of six titles from the first era of dominance.

From there, Madrid took the lead and scored the second goal when Dortmund’s Ian Maatsen lost the ball on the edge of his own penalty area, gave midfielder Jude Bellingham plenty of space and passed to Vinicius Jr. and the Brazilian slotted the ball home.

Dortmund’s incredible fans continued to sing despite their defeat, even though they and their players know that this was a missed opportunity that will sting for a long time.

“Today we saw a Dortmund team like we want to see,” said coach Edin Terzic, whose team finished fifth in the Bundesliga.

“We played a fantastic game and perhaps deserved a little more than the 2-0 defeat.

“In the first half we felt like we had them under control. From the first second we showed the world that we believed in it. Not only that we would reach the final, but that we would win it.

“We did a lot of things right, but they had that killer instinct. They were ice cold and are deserving champions.”

(Reporting by Mitch Phillips, editing by Ken Ferris and Ed Osmond)