the tenth time thanks to extra time goals from
Gareth Bale, Marcelo and Cristiano Ronaldo as
they came from behind in dramatic
circumstances to beat Atletico Madrid 4-1 in
Lisbon.
Atletico seemed set for their first ever European
crown as they led deep into stoppage time
thanks to Diego Godin's first-half header, but
Sergio Ramos took the game into extra time with
a towering header in the 93rd minute. And for
the second time this season having already
scored the winner to hand Real the Copa del Rey
against Barcelona last month, Bale scored the
crucial goal when he headed into an empty net
after Thibaut Courtois had parried Angel di
Maria's effort.
With Atletico committed to finding an equaliser,
Real were able to counter-attack at will and
Marcelo killed the game off when his low shot
had too much power for Courtois before Ronaldo
sealed his return to Lisbon with a fourth from the
penalty spot.
Atletico's top scorer Diego Costa had been
surprisingly included in Diego Simeone's starting
line-up despite suffering a hamstring injury just
seven days ago as Atletico clinched the Spanish
La Liga title against Barcelona. However, the
Brazilian-born striker lasted just nine minutes as
he hobbled off to be replaced by Adrian Lopez.
After a quiet start the game came to life just
before the half hour when Raul Garcia was shown
a yellow card for chopping down Di Maria and
Ramos joined him in the book for squaring up to
Garcia.
Ronaldo's resulting free-kick was comfortably
dealt with by Courtois, but Real missed a golden
chance to open the scoring minutes later
through Bale. The Welshman pounced on Tiago's
errant pass in midfield and scampered forward
into the area but side-footed wide on his
favoured left foot.
Three minutes later it was Atletico who took the
lead as Juanfran headed a cleared corner back
into the box and Godin took advantage of
indecision by Iker Casillas to loop the ball over
the Spanish captain and just over the line.
Ronaldo had a couple of half-chances to level at
the start of the second-half as Courtois
awkwardly tipped another free-kick from distance
over before the Portuguese captain headed just
wide from a corner. As Real took more risks to
find the equaliser, though, Atletico were also
becoming more dangerous on the break and
Adrian was unfortunate to see his goalbound
effort deflected just wide by Sami Khedira.
Bale wasted another good opening as he sprinted
onto Ronaldo's pass, but chose the wrong option
in trying to squeeze the ball home at the near
post and dumped the ball into the side netting.
Just when Atletico thought they had the trophy
won, though, Real got their reward as Ramos
rose to power Luka Modric's corner past the
helpless Courtois.
Atletico's tiredness then showed in the second
period of extra time as Real had too much pace
and power and finally went in front ten minutes
from the end when Di Maria burst into the area
and despite his effort being saved by Courtois,
Bale was on hand to head in at the back post.
Courtois also got a hand to Marcelo's low drive
eight minutes later, but the Belgian international
could not keep it out. And Ronaldo got the goal
he craved back in his homeland when he was
clipped by Gabi moments later and got back up
to score the resulting penalty.
Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN
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