Borussia Dortmund‘s players still can’t explain it. Nor do Manchester City and Bayern Munich. Real Madrid won their 15th Champions League after yet another game where they rode their luck.
“We didn’t take our chances and Madrid don’t forgive you,” lamented Edin Terzic at the end of the game, the latest to suffer from Carlo Ancelotti‘s diced with death once again.
Madrid’s ‘dicing with death’ tactic is talked about by both their opponents and within the Real Madrid dressing room itself.
“We are a team that knows how to suffer and we know each other. It is difficult for us not to have any chances and we know that our moment will come,” Lucas Vazquez said in the mixed zone at Wembley to Cope’s Partidazo.
“Ancelotti has told us that the ‘dead man’s tactic’ is still working. We seem to be on the ropes and then we always come out on top,” he added.
“It seems easy, but every final we suffer more,” continued Lucas, who sees no end to this impressive run of titles. “15 Champions League titles and counting. You can’t see the limit of this team and year after year it surpasses itself, we don’t see the end. The atmosphere that reigns is one of happiness.”
To win the 15th, Madrid had to come back to life at halftime. Borussia Dortmund were battering Los Blancos in a way rarely seen in a European Cup final, but Ancelotti played the necessary cards. First, together with the heavyweights, he activated the rest of the team, which did not come out onto the pitch with the necessary energy. And then he changed the system, setting up a clearer 4-3-3 formation. The changes had an effect and Madrid was a different team in the second half.
“The veterans spoke, the players with more experience, those with more finals, like Carvajal, Nacho, Modric… and then the coach finished off,” Fede Valverde said. “The coach, who is the best in the world and the ideal one for this club, played what needed to be played and it worked. He is the best for a reason,” said Joselu. Everyone agreed that the break had come at the right time. “We were suffering, but this team has this, it never gives up and always comes out [on top],” insisted Joselu, who then joked. “Some bastards don’t even celebrate anymore.”
Madrid once again brought out their winning gene at Wembley, with their risky tactics above any plan. A tactic forged throughout history and based on an iron mentality in the view of some, while lucky in the eyes of others.
Toni Kroos summed it up perfectly. He will no longer be around, but he has no doubt that the team will continue to win: “I’m sure they will. The team may play with a different style, but it will continue to win, as always”.
“We will have to adapt to what we have, without Kroos it will be different, but we will continue,” said Ancelotti, the creator of the theory of the dead man’s tactic, which everyone suspected existed, but which no one spoke of until Wembley, although it was an open secret.
