From superstar injuries, to goalkeeper blunders, pitch invaders and everything in between, Saturday’s Champions League final was a spectacle that had it all.
This weekend, we talk all about the 2018 UEFA Champions League final, featuring an amazing goal by Gareth Bale, Cristiano Ronaldo’s controversial remarks about his future, Loris Karius’ nightmare and much more.
Wrap up this unforgettable night with the latest weekend edition of 90 Minutes’ Top Five.
1. Bizarro land
The Champions League final is the most prestigious single club match in the sport mainly for being a spectacle beyond the actual game.
Saturday’s game in Kiev was a spectacle to be remembered for having a little bit of everything: the good, the bad, the ugly and the very, very weird.
The “good” category is spearheded by one Gareth Bale, who did not even start in Zinedine Zidane’s lineup, but single-handedly (well, sort of) changed the game in the second half. Also included are Karim Benzema, Sergio Ramos and Keylor Navas, the foundation for Real Madrid’s victory in their respective roles.
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On the “bad” side of things? Well, there’s Loris Karius (more on that later).
Then there’s the ugly, starting with the unfortunate injuries to Mohamed Salah (also, more on that later) and Dani Carvajal, who were forced off the biggest stage in tears before the game even reached halftime.
And then there’s the weird.
Think about what all happened over the course of the game. Salah left the game so early, it drastically changed what everyone expected of it, Karius made two infantile mistakes, Bale scored a goal for the ages, Cristiano Ronaldo missed chances left and right, only one yellow card was shown, and even a fan made his way onto the pitch right before the final whistle.
This was the game pitting two of the best in the world, yet the match is being talked about for everything but the actual level of play on either side, but it lived up to the spectacle billing and thensome.
2. Not you, King Mo
One of the most talked about aspects of Saturday’s final going into it was the epic Mohamed Salah-Cristiano Ronaldo battle.
Unfortunately, the hype was quickly derailed by the nature of the sport itself, depriving one of the best players of the season of this moment, and maybe more.
Imagine how different the game would have been with the presence of a fully-healthy Salah on the pitch all 90 minutes. But soccer can be like that sometimes. For as much as it gives us, it can also take away.
It is a great injustice that Salah’s amazing season had to end with a tearful goodbye in a Champions League stage. It would be a bigger injustice if the injury takes him away from the world’s biggest stage.
As of this writing, the prognosis on Salah’s shoulder injury remains unknown, keeping the fear of missing the World Cup still alive in the minds and heart of Egyptians -and soccer fans as a whole- who hold Salah as one of the players to watch in Russia.
3. Spotlight heist
Now it’s time to talk about the elephant in the room.
The bizarre went on after the end of the match, spilling over into the post-match interview given by Cristiano Ronaldo. What followed was spotlight robbery like only Ronaldo can do.
In a completely unexpected turn of events, the Portuguese came out with this talk about how it was nice to play at Real Madrid, how he will talk about his future in the coming days and so on.
For whatever reason, Ronaldo created this unwarranted new summer drama about his future at Real Madrid, even though he is under contract through 2021.
In the process, he absorbed all the attention away from his teammates after winning their third Champions League, making all the post-final talk about about him despite his repeated attempts to deflect the attention away from himself.
Ronaldo has a knack for creating drama for a purpose. Given his and his agent Jorge Mendes’ attitude after the game, something is brewing in the Ronaldo camp, and Florentino Perez better be ready for anything.
4. Night of infamy
If Ronaldo diverted all the attention to himself afterwards, Loris Karius became the talk of the final during it for all the wrong reasons.
The German goalkeeper cemented his name is soccer infamy with two mind-blowing mistakes in the worst possible time to do it, single-handedly ruining Liverpool’s dream of dethroning Real Madrid and becoming kings of Europe after 13 years.
Karius had somewhat of a reputation for being shaky since his arrival at Liverpool, costing him the starting spot to Simon Mignolet at the outset of the season. Since then, he regained his spot, removing himself from that reputation, untill now.
It is not just the fact that he made two mistakes. It is how incredibly bad they were. Him bouncing a pass off Karim Benzema’s foot is the stuff of blooper. And if that was not enough, he let a routine-looking shot from Gareth Bale slip through his fingers to top.
Karius is only 24 years old, but his career is already defined by a singular event for the rest of it. No one has the kind of night he had in Kiev and is able to remove himself from the stink of it, fairly or unfairly.
5. Goal of the weekend
It doesn’t get any bigger than this.
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Say what you will about Ronaldo’s goal against Juventus and all the hype it got, Gareth Bale has completely surpassed it.
The Welsh has had a rough go this season at Real Madrid, and if he is to leave this summer, he left us with one heck of a lasting impression.
Here is a goal for the ages, courtesy of Gareth Bale.
Enjoy.