Spanish football giants Real Madrid, otherwise known as Los Blancos, have won six of the last 11 European elite club football tournament titles available, and they are only getting more challenging with each season’s competition.
After Real Madrid hoisted their 15th European Cup under the floodlights of the Wembley Stadium on Saturday, some of the club's veterans had a teasing message to a few of the team’s newbies like 20-year-old first-timer Jude Bellingham— “Some of my team-mates have five or six titles, and they said enjoy your first as it's a feeling like no other when you reach the top of the mountain,"
On Saturday, June 1st 2024, Real Madrid emerged victorious over Bavarian giants Borussia Dortmund in a memorable final.
Real Madrid, in their usual manner in recent Champions League matches, was second-best for long stretches of the game, but they rode their luck. After a handful of big saves from their Belgian shot-stopper Thibaut Courtois and the fortune of Niclas Fullkrug hitting the post, they came back to life in the second half. 5 feet 7, Dani Carvajal converted a corner to help them find their stride, and Vinicius Jr provided the finishing touch to allow Madrid to see off the remainder of the game.
Moods tempered down, hopes dashed, and despite trying to mount pressure for a slim chance of a comeback, there was something so predictable about the outcome—Real Madrid won on the night; it's just what they know how to do best.
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Real Madrid have clinched six Champions League titles in the last ten years - only three other clubs (AC Milan, Bayern Munich and Liverpool) can boast of winning as many European Cups in their entire history— now that’s what you call football talk dominance.
The concern for pundits, onlookers, football rivals and the like is that there are little signs that Madrid's run will stop soon, either.
What was supposed to be a rebuilding period has become a measured renewal. Madrid's best players are all in their prime - or slightly short of it - and with arguably the most electric frontline in club football made up of Vinicius Jr, Rodrygo and now Kylian Mbappe joining the fold while other clubs enter transitions of their own, Saturday's win may well go down as the start of another decade of continental superiority at Santiago Bernabeu.
Magic moments, you might want to call it, but Madrid and European success have always been joined by the hip like a pair of Siamese twins, intrinsically connected. Even when they were battling Barcelona for Spanish football supremacy, Los Blancos have always managed to make deep runs in Europe's premier club competition, and their trademark dramatic wins aren't a new concept to football lovers; for example, Joselu's match-winning double against German giants Bayern Munich in the round of four.
Madrid's Champions League title in the 21st century came back in 2001 when Zinedine Zidane powered a volley into the top corner to beat Bayer Leverkusen in the final at Hampden Park. It wasn’t until a Cristiano Ronaldo-spearheaded era that Real Madrid won it four times in five years and produced some real moments of magic in the competition constantly.
Atletico Madrid in2014 tasted defeat in the hands of their local rivals when Sergio Ramos' last-minute header in that final sent the game to extra-time, and Madrid dominated to the tune of a 4-1 win to clinch their 10th European title, ending their long quest for the lofty ‘La Decima'.
Two years along the line, they completed a similar feat, returning from a 2-0 deficit against Wolfsburg in the quarter-finals to beat Atletico again in the finals, but this time on penalties. The year after, it was an extra-time victory over Bayern that saw them cruise their way to the final.
In 2018, against the ‘old ladies’ of Italian football, Juventus, a famous Ronaldo bicycle kick got the job done for Real Madrid, and in 2022, a series of comebacks led by former Ballon d’Or winner Karim Benzema got them title number 14.
Karim Benzema’s departure to Saudi Arabia led to fears that Madrid might fizzle out of their supremacy and not be the same football monster they’ve been known to be due to the circumstances of his departure and with Madrid not willing to bulge towards Kylian Mbappe’s high price tag because they had eyes on signing him on a free 12 months later, they went into the season with no top-class striker to of repute. Carlo Ancelotti, of course, made things work by doing what he knows how to do best. Vinicius and Rodrygo pushed higher up the pitch while Jude Bellingham became a No. 10. A revitalised Toni Kroos sat behind them. They controlled the tempo, and even with injuries to David Alaba, Eder Militao and Thibaut Courtois, not much could slow them down in their quest.
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Sincerely speaking, Madrid really should have exited the tourney on two occasions. Manchester City ran them ragged for 120 minutes at the Etihad Stadium in the quarter-final, but Los Blancos held on to their resolve and sent the game to penalties - and never looked like losing once it got there. Meanwhile, Bayern should have put them away in the semi, but 33-year-old Joselu - a failed Madrid academy player who returned on loan in the summer - scored a brace in the final five minutes to turn the tie on its head.
The backbone of Madrid's dominance in the last ten years of Champions League football is them doing it at a time when European football has felt so competitive at the top level.
Until the season ended, most campaigns began with at least five or six teams that could challenge the continent's most prestigious prize. But as it stands going forward, we might witness an era whereby the number of potential winners at the start of a season is at an all-time low.
Perhaps the most likely contenders for Madrid's crown next season will be Manchester City, and few would bet against the Premier League champions adding to their sole Champions League win of 2023.
Rumour has it that this upcoming season could be Pep Guardiola’s curtain call at the Etihad.
It takes us back to what Liverpool has to make this year following Jurgen Klopp's shock decision to leave Anfield. With key players such as Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk coming towards the end of their time on Merseyside, one still has to wait patiently and see whether Arne Slot can maintain the Reds' current status when it comes to European night football.
The Premier League remains the most robust domestic competition in terms of finances in Europe. Still, it's a tad difficult to see anyone other than Manchester City under Pep Guardiola, and maybe an improving Arsenal realistically challenge Madrid annually as it stands right now.
PSG seems ready to take a back seat in this challenge as the last of their 'Galacticos' Kylian Mbappe has left Paris for Madrid. Italian clubs do not have the financial muscle to sustain European challenges year-on-year. Even league rivals Barcelona, with their economic issues, are now being forced to depend on uber-talented academy graduates, which still doesn’t guarantee anything significant.
English youngster Jude Bellingham, during a post-match chat at Wembley on Saturday night, did indicate that Madrid still desires a missing piece in their attack, and that’s an out-and-out striker, and he did suggest that Kylian Mbappe joining the Los Blancos dressing room
would give them that edge and take them to a whole new level.
The Champions League, without a doubt, will remain a competition synonymous with Real Madrid, and when it comes to statistics in Europe's top club tournament, they have a firm grip on it. Real Madrid has upheld a particular furore in the Champions League in the last decade. In the previous 11 seasons, they have been to six finals and only not made it to at least the semi-finals on two occasions— 2018/19 & 2019/20, when no team had ever retained the trophy in the Champions League era, Real Madrid won it three times in a row between 2015/16 and 2017/18.
The modern era of the Champions League from 1992/93 season has Madrid's supremacy nothing short of glaring. If we want to compare the players who make this dominance, they have the players with the most Champions League titles within that timeframe. Only Andrés Iniesta, with four titles, makes the top 10 without having played for Madrid, with Cristiano Ronaldo being the one with a UCL title away from the Santiago Bernabéu, which came from his time with Manchester United in 2007/08.
Remarkably, they have won all of the last eight Champions League finals they have been involved in; the last time they lost a final was 1981, losing 1-0 to Liverpool, so come next season, should they make it once again to the final third of the business stages of the competition, it’ll then be fair to say “good luck to you” to any team who dares them in such a final.
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