Real Madrid are once again champions of the most important tournament in the world of club soccer.
At The Stade de France in Paris Saturday night, the Madrid side eliminated Liverpool with a scoreboard of 1-0 in a thrilling and exciting match between two European heavyweights with enormous soccer heritage.
At the 59th minute, Uruguayan international Federico Valverde delivered a perfect ball to Brazilian forward, Vinicius Jr. who scored the only goal of the match, putting Madrid up in the scoreboard and securing the big win.
Real Madrid fans roared under the Parisian sky.
Both of these teams faced off in the 2018 Champions League, in a very similar type of match where the English side came out firing on all cylinders, but the Spanish side did just enough towards the end to come out victorious.
This is now the 14th overall European Cup in Real Madrid's history, and 5th in the past 8th years since 2014.
However, for many soccer fans, this European Cup run is the most impressive one of all, considering who they had to face along the way.
In the first round of the knock-out stages, Madrid played against Paris Saint-Germain who are the champions of France, and then Chelsea Football Club who won the European Cup last year, Manchester City who are the English Premier League champions, and now Liverpool who had, arguably, the best team in Europe throughout the year.
And on top of that, French young star Kylian Mbappe rejected an offer to join Real Madrid and remain in Paris last weekend, which led to a humiliation for the Spanish club after anticipating his arrival. This failed signing on behalf of Madrid created a negative imagine on their team, with people starting to believe that perhaps the days of Madrid signing the biggest names in soccer is finally over.
But still, Madrid didn't let that humiliating failed signing get the best of them, as they remained focus on the biggest prize of the year entering this week, which was the UEFA Champions League.
They did it!
Nearly a month after securing the Spanish league title, they have now secured the biggest cup competition in the sport, wrapping up an incredible and historic season in the club's history.
Italian legend Carlo Ancelotti, Real Madrid coach, says that they embraced not being considered "favorites" throughout this tournament, but they were able to take the cup back to Madrid through the quality of their star players.
"No one saw it coming at the start of the season, but we have won it being consistent with our quality, with our club's history." Coach Ancelotti said. "This final has been well-managed on our end, despite suffering quite a bit at times, but our goalkeeper was great, our defense was really good, we were able to take away Liverpool's vertical weapons."
Brazilian international Marcelo Vieira, the team's second captain, says that this title means even more because it was the last match of his career as a Real Madrid player. With this title, the Brazilian international would end his Real Madrid career
"Being so many years at Real Madrid, the biggest club in the world, and to be able to win 5 European Cups is such an achievement that still hasn't hit me just yet," said the Brazilian captain. "Tonight was my last match as a Real Madrid player, so yes, I cried after the final whistle because I felt an emotional liberation, knowing that I will leave this club with the most title by any Madrid player in history, so I am leaving with my head high," he added.
In the year 2000, Real Madrid received the award for Club of The Century after winning the most European Cups throughout the 1990's.
And now, with 7 European cups already won in the new millennium, they are making sure they secure the Club of The Century award of the 22nd century.
