After Real Madrid beat derby rivals Atletico Madrid in a penalty shootout in the Champions League final in Milan’s San Siro, they set a new benchmark for the rest of Europe. They won La Decima in 2014. against the very same opponents. And they have now gone one step further to win Undecima – the 11th!
In doing so, a number of records were set and milestones achieved. We look back at all the numbers that made this one of the most memorable campaigns in Europe.
11 – No team has won as many European Cup/Champions League titles as Real Madrid. The next best club is AC Milan with seven titles. Their last win came in 2007.
11 – The city of Madrid now has the most Champions League titles. They were tied with Milan (AC Milan and Inter had also won 10 combined).
11 – This was the 11th final to be decided on penalties. The first was in 1984.
14 – Real Madrid have also reached the most Champions League finals in history. This was their 14th final. They lost only in 1962, 1964, 1981 to Benfica, Inter Milan and Liverpool respectively.
7 – Zinedine Zidane became only the seventh person to win the Champions League as a player and manager. He also became the first French manager to win the trophy. He is the only person to win it as a player, manager and assistant manager!
5 – Real Madrid have now won five European Cup/Champions League finals in a row twice. They won every final between1956 to 1960 and then won every final they reached between 1998 and 2016.
5 – Antoine Griezmann became the fifth player to miss a penalty in the Champions League final. Others who missed were Enrique Mateos (1959 – Real Madrid vs Stade Reims), Mehmet Scholl (2001 – Bayern Munich vs Valencia), Xabi Alonso (2005 – Liverpool vs AC Milan) and Arjen Robben (2012 – Bayern Munich vs Chelsea).
But Griezmann’s penalty was the only one that wasn’t saved. He had also missed one earlier this season against Keylor Navas.
4 – Sergio Ramos became the fourth defender to score in two Champions League finals. He had scored the equaliser in 2014 in injury time. The others who scored in two different finals were Velibor Vasovic (for Partizan and Ajax), Tommy Gemmell (for Celtic) and Phil Neal (for Liverpool)
3 – Diego Simeone became only the third manager to lose two Champions League finals to the same opponent. The other two managers were Albert Batteux of Stade de Reims (lost twice to Real Madrid in 1956 and 1959) while the other was Sir Alex Ferguson of Manchester United (lost twice to Barcelona in 2009 and 2011).
2 – Juanfran became the first defender to provide an assist in two different Champions League finals.
1 – Atletico’s Yannick Carrasco became the first Belgian to score in a Champions League final.
0 – Fernando Torres failed to complete a single pass in the first half of the final. In fact, he did not complete his first pass till the 57th minute.
All stats courtesy of Opta, MisterChiping, Squawka and Gracenote
