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| Meta Title | Champions League Final: Champions League Final: Real Madrid Beats Liverpool for 14th Title - The New York Times |
| Meta Description | Vinícius Junior’s goal saw Real Madrid extend its record for victories in European soccer’s biggest game. The final’s kickoff was delayed more than 30 minutes because of chaotic scenes at the overcrowded stadium gates. |
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Real Madrid Wins the Champions League, Putting Method Over Magic
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Credit...
Anne-Christine Poujoulat/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Deep down, Real Madrid does not believe in magic. Or, rather, it does not only believe in magic. It might have spent much of the last three months apparently touched by some golden light, its run to the Champions League final a dream of stirring comebacks and insurmountable odds and impossible triumphs.
Those triumphs, against
Paris St.-Germain
and
Chelsea
and
Manchester City
, might have seemed to prove that ultimate victory in this competition is Real Madrid’s irrevocable destiny, that it is driven by some elemental, unstoppable force, one that defies rational explanation and brooks no resistance.
After the curtain had been lifted and the veil drawn, though, when reality’s cold light poured in, there was no magic at all. There was, instead, just a plan: a painstakingly crafted and expertly executed plan that ended, as it always seemed like it would, with Real Madrid lifting yet another European Cup.
That, in a sense, was the twist: There was no twist. Real Madrid beat Liverpool, 1-0, on Saturday in Paris with a performance of ruthless efficiency, of meticulous organization, of clinical obduracy. To do so, it required not only a single goal, scored by Vinícius Junior, but really only a single attack, a single move, a single chance.
It leaned, it is true, reasonably heavily on its goalkeeper, Thibaut Courtois, in those fleeting moments when Liverpool — another team in possession of a very particular sense of its own destiny — seemed to be gathering a head of steam. But it is one of soccer’s most cherished misapprehensions that having a good goalkeeper is just another form of luck.
They are part of the team, too, after all; to beat Real Madrid, it is necessary to beat Courtois, and the reason the former is so difficult is because the latter, at times, appears to skirt the impossible. Real Madrid could risk absorbing pressure, conceding chances, safe in the knowledge that Courtois is a redoubtable last line of defense.
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Thibaut Courtois turned back Mohamed Salah and his teammates again and again.
Credit...
Lee Smith/Reuters
Even he, though, found his role diminishing as the game wore on. Those last few minutes, as Real Madrid waited impatiently to claim its glory, did not build to some deafening climax. Instead, if anything, the game ambled gently to a close. There were some substitutions. Liverpool committed some injudicious and unnecessary fouls. Real dawdled over some free kicks. The whistle blew. The trophy was presented. Everyone went home.
It felt, in truth, like something of a non sequitur: Not only because Real Madrid has spent the spring finding ever more improbable ways to win games, but because that sort of drama is now
an essential ingredient
in this competition.
Breathless fervor, something bordering on persistent mayhem, has become the hallmark of the modern Champions League. It is what has helped turn it, for all the enduring concerns over its domination by a tiny cabal of clubs from a small group of countries, into such a consistently compelling spectacle. No victory is ever secure. No game is ever over. Nothing is ever certain. That is what makes it so compelling.
Saturday’s final, by contrast — delayed by more than half an hour because of
a complete organizational breakdown outside the Stade de France
— seemed to belong to a prior incarnation of the tournament, when European soccer’s showpiece occasions were far more tentative, when the slightest mistake tended to prove fatal, when games were decided by which team seized individual moments, rather than which could best harness some elusive, vaguely ethereal form of momentum.
And yet, below the surface, there was an undeniable thematic consistency to Real Madrid’s victory, its record 14th title in the competition. The composite may have seemed distinct from all of the games that brought Carlo Ancelotti’s team to Paris — and the coach himself to a record fifth Champions League final — but the strands were almost exactly the same.
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Karim Benzema, left, didn’t need to produce more magic in the final.
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David Ramos/Getty Images
Jürgen Klopp, the Liverpool coach, spoke last week of Real Madrid’s ability to “keep the door open.” In all of its previous knockout games, it had faced moments when elimination seemed all but certain but still found a way to cling on. What looked like magic was underpinned by the distinctly material virtues of resilience, and courage, and indomitability.
So it was in Paris. For all that Liverpool and Real Madrid have in common — both are members of European soccer’s aristocrat class, both believe themselves to have a special relationship with the Champions League — their approaches to maintaining their modern superiority could not diverge more sharply.
Liverpool is a reflection of what soccer has become, an information-soaked industrial complex, in which
no gain is too marginal
, in which decisions are driven by data, in which even throw-ins can be weaponized, made more efficient. It has worked, too: This was the club’s third Champions League final in five years.
Real Madrid, on the other hand, tends toward a slightly more simplified interpretation. The team that wins, as far as Real can tell, generally employs the better players, up to and including the one wearing gloves. Not simply in terms of talent, but experience, grit, composure under the most intense pressure and a refusal to wilt, too.
Ancelotti’s team displayed all of those qualities in abundance. It did not so much as blink as Liverpool fizzed and fretted around its penalty area in the first half. At times, Real Madrid seemed to be standing still, daring its opponent to try to forge an opening.
Nor did it freeze after Vinícius had taken his chance — the chance — and Liverpool had nothing left to lose. Real Madrid’s players seemed blissfully unaffected by the ticking of the clock. They did not hurry or panic or sink back on themselves. They looked, instead, as if they had all the time in the world.
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Vinícius Junior delivered the game’s only goal.
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Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters
Perhaps that should not be a surprise. After all, for a considerable proportion of the team, this was a fifth Champions League final. They have been here before, time and time again, and they know how it turns out. They know what is required, and it is not magic. Magic, after all, is just a way of explaining the parts of reality that you do not understand, and Real Madrid understand this all too well.
Far better, instead, to have a plan, painstakingly crafted and perfectly executed and always ending in the same way, the way it ended here: in a blizzard of white ticker tape and Real Madrid, beaming, holding the European Cup aloft.
May 28, 2022
Andrew Das
The former Real Madrid striker Raúl gets the honor of carrying the trophy out to the medals stand, his former club’s name now etched into it yet again.
May 28, 2022
Andrew Das
Defeat will be a bitter blow for Liverpool, which has now lost the final twice in five years, both times against Real Madrid. Jürgen Klopp’s team, which only a week ago still harbored hopes of four trophies from this season, now must settle for only two — the Carabao Cup and the F.A. Cup — after coming up a point short in the Premier League and a goal short in the Champions League.
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Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters
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May 28, 2022
Andrew Das
FULL TIME: Real Madrid 1, Liverpool 0. That’s 14 European titles for them, more than double any other club.
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May 28, 2022
Andrew Das
90′ Five minutes of added time.
May 28, 2022
Andrew Das
90′ Dani Ceballos, who came on along with Eudardo Camavinga as a game-killing sub for Modric, nearly wins it by slipping behind the defense. But he botches the chance, Liverpool scrambles to push the ball out for a corner, and we continue at 1-0. Not much time left.
May 28, 2022
UEFA blames the delay of the Champions League final on ‘fake tickets.’
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Matthias Hangst/Getty Images
PARIS — A logjam of fans that led to a 35-minute delay of the start of Saturday’s
Champions League final
between Real Madrid and Liverpool was caused by people attempting to use “fake tickets” to enter the match, the tournament’s organizer said.
The problems with crowd control and access — which appeared to result from organizational failures rather than crowd misbehavior — saw thousands of fans, many of them Liverpool supporters with valid tickets, trapped in lines for hours, with few gates available for entry and a shortage of staff members on the ground.
The confusion left fans locked out of their team’s biggest game of the season, and created a potentially dangerous situation in which French police officers, wearing helmets and carrying shields, used canisters of what UEFA, which runs the Champions League, said was tear gas to keep the surging crowds at bay.
“In the lead-up to the game, the turnstiles at the Liverpool end became blocked by thousands of fans who had purchased fake tickets which did not work in the turnstiles,” UEFA said in
its statement
. “This created a buildup of fans trying to get in. As a result, the kickoff was delayed by 35 minutes to allow as many fans as possible with genuine tickets to gain access.”
The statement went on, “As numbers outside the stadium continued to build up after kickoff, the police dispersed them with tear gas and forced them away from the stadium.”
In the chaos, fans pleaded with stadium stewards to be allowed in, pressing their tickets through the iron gates, and many were left coughing and gasping for breath on the sidewalks outside the Stade de France, a modern arena built for the 1998 World Cup.
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Fans were stopped by police at the turnstiles of the Stade de France, as the Champions League final was delayed.
Credit...
Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters
Other fans looked for alternate ways in, climbing fences and locked gates. One group of V.I.P.s, delayed because of a problem scanning the Q.R. codes attached to their tickets, scaled a fence in an effort to get to their seats. Once over it, one of the officials said, they watched as the police fought with spectators still outside.
Inside the stadium, where the teams had completed their warm-ups, two 15-minute delays were announced. But even before the crowds outside had dispersed, UEFA went ahead, incongruously, with an elaborate pregame ceremony starring the singer Camila Cabello. Once she finished, the teams took the field and traded handshakes, and the final began.
Police officers stationed at the entrances to the stadium pinned much of the blame for the chaos on the local population of the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis, where the stadium is located, saying it was not fans wearing the colors of the competing teams but those dressed in what they described as “civilian clothing” who had tried to enter the stadium without tickets.
But France’s interior minister, Gerald Darmanin, repeated UEFA’s version of events
in a Twitter post
. “Thousands of British ‘supporters’ without tickets or with counterfeit tickets forced entry and sometimes assaulted the stewards,” he wrote. “Thank you to the very many police forces mobilized this evening in this difficult context.”
Fans blamed a lack of organization, saying several entrance gates were closed, forcing those attending the game to funnel into long lines that developed into
a crush of bodies
as kickoff time neared.
UEFA officials initially seemed to lay the blame for the problems on “late-arriving fans,” even though huge crowds had been stuck at the gates for hours before the scheduled kickoff.
Tommy Smith, a Liverpool fan who had traveled to Paris from Ireland with a group of friends and family, said his group had arrived two hours before the scheduled kickoff and found that there were few entrances where fans could present their tickets. “They closed every turnstile Liverpool-related,” Smith said. “Fans waited two hours, orderly, nothing out of order, and we were tear-gassed.” He said there was little information or direction from stadium staff.
Like your timeline has been full of people saying “there’s lots of fans outside” for three hours. You know it’s not because of the “late arrival” of anyone.
— Rory Smith (@RorySmith)
May 28, 2022
Liverpool released
a statement
during the game in which it said the club was “hugely disappointed at the stadium entry issues and breakdown of the security perimeter that Liverpool fans faced.” The team said it had requested a formal investigation into the events.
Ronan Evan, the executive director of Football Supporters Europe, an umbrella group for fans, told The New York Times that the fans were blameless.
“Fans at the Champions League final bear no responsibility for tonight’s fiasco,” he said. “They are victims here.”
By halftime, a UEFA security official said, the Stade de France had been locked down, with all entrances and exits closed, while the police were still deploying tear gas outside the stadium concourses.
“For now it’s safer for you inside than outside,” the UEFA official told an Australian executive looking to leave the stadium at halftime. The security official said that “it was a police decision” to close entry and exit points.
In its statement after the game, UEFA said it would investigate the causes of the crowd problems, which came almost a year after surging crowds of ticketless fans attending the European Championship at Wembley Stadium, in London, overwhelmed stewards to gain access to the final of that tournament. The tournament was also a UEFA event.
“UEFA is sympathetic to those affected by these events,” the organization said, “and will further review these matters urgently together with the French police and authorities, and with the French Football Federation.”
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May 28, 2022
Andrew Das
83′ Real Madrid nearly seals it on the counter, with Kroos and Benzema and Vinícius driving against a reeling defense. But after carving up Liverpool, Benzema leads Vinícius too far and Alisson smothers the chance. Big moment. And now back comes Liverpool. Tick, tick, tick ….
May 28, 2022
Andrew Das
82′ Minutes after a Salah shot almost rolls into the path of Jota (before Courtois intervenes) a great chance falls to Keita at the top of the area. With time to shoot, though, he mis-hits it badly, to the groans of tens of thousands.
Now Salah is in again … and Courtois brushes that one away too!!!!
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Credit...
Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters
May 28, 2022
Andrew Das
77′ Double sub for Liverpool: Naby Keita (for Henderson) and Roberto Firmino (for Thiago) come on for the final push. Madrid is tiring, but Ancelotti looks less interested in changing a thing.
May 28, 2022
Andrew Das
76′ Curious decision from Casemiro there: A Kroos free kick finds him alone behind the Liverpool back line, and rather than shoot he tries to cut a pass back into the middle. But he scuffs it badly, and none of the three other Madrid players who are in behind with him even get a chance to shoot.
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May 28, 2022
Rory Smith
75' That clock will be moving troublingly quickly for Liverpool. In the time since Real Madrid’s goal, Jürgen Klopp’s team has struggled to create even the most slender of openings, one glimmer of a chance for Salah aside. There are the first signs of a team starting to rush, too; Trent Alexander-Arnold, in particular, has yet to find his range.
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Julian Finney/Getty Images
May 28, 2022
Andrew Das
69′ Courtois saves Madrid — again — after a long cross from the right finds Jota at the back post. He lollipops a header back across the gaping goal and Salah screams in to meet it. But the time it takes for the ball to fall to earth is just enough for Courtois to scramble over and hurl himself in front of the collision of it with Salah’s foot.
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Lee Smith/Reuters
May 28, 2022
Andrew Das
65′ Liverpool makes the game’s first change: Luis Díaz is off, replaced by Diogo Jota. Díaz struggled to make his presence felt but his replacement, Jota, is a poacher and goal-chaser. His team really needs one now.
May 28, 2022
Andrew Das
Vinícius is a great scorer but that could not have been an easier finish for him:
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May 28, 2022
Andrew Das
59′ Vinícius Junior gets the goal, tucking in a low drive from Valverde at the back post with impeccable timing.
May 28, 2022
Rory Smith
That is what Real Madrid has been waiting for. A single move, simple and effective and ruthless, and all of Liverpool’s superiority is meaningless. Now Carlo Ancelotti’s team gets to play the game it wants: absorbing pressure and picking Liverpool off on the counter attack.
May 28, 2022
Andrew Das
59′ GOAL! Madrid takes the lead!!
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Molly Darlington/Reuters
May 28, 2022
Andrew Das
58′ Two shots for Salah from near the penalty, and after the second he appeals for a handball. The ball was fired into a crowd, and it did hit the arm of David Alaba. But his arm was tucked in, and no referee is giving that.
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May 28, 2022
Andrew Das
56′ A short delay here as Éder Militão receives some treatment after a collision.
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Dylan Martinez/Reuters
May 28, 2022
Andrew Das
46′ Back underway at the Stade de France.
May 28, 2022
Tariq Panja
A UEFA security official said the Stade de France has been locked down, with all entrances and exits closed. The official said the police were still deploying tear gas outside the stadium concourse. "For now it’s safer for you inside than outside," he told an Australian executive looking to leave at halftime. The security official said "it was a police decision" to close entry and exit points.
May 28, 2022
Halftime review: That was vintage Real Madrid.
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Lee Smith/Reuters
The first half ends with the perfect encapsulation of Real Madrid’s approach: the Spanish champion has been curiously reticent, even for a team determined to play on the counterattack, for the opening period. It’s a risky tactic for a club so proud: If it fails, Carlo Ancelotti will be accused of diminishing the greatness of Real. The gamble is that it will not fail, that Karim Benzema will get a chance, take it, and glory will belong to Madrid.
And it came within a whisker of working, too. Liverpool had dominated the half — albeit while creating only a couple of genuinely gilt-edged opportunities — but Madrid has come closest to scoring, with Benzema’s late effort ruled out for a slender, and quite possibly subjective, offside.
The VAR review is a narrow escape for Liverpool, especially as Benzema should not really have been offered two bites at the cherry, and a reminder that supremacy, against Real Madrid, is a fickle thing.
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May 28, 2022
Andrew Das
Halftime. Liverpool hits a post (and Courtois several times) and Real Madrid hits the target once and scores, only to have it ruled out for offside. A frantic finish to the half that started 30 minutes late. Take a breath.
May 28, 2022
Andrew Das
45′+1 No goal. Huge relief for Liverpool, which was the better team for 44 minutes and then nearly fell behind in a matter of seconds.
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Franck Fife/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
May 28, 2022
Andrew Das
45′ The confusion is whether Liverpool played the ball to Benzema, which would have played him back onside.
May 28, 2022
Andrew Das
44′ Hold on: VAR review. Maybe he wasn’t offside??
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May 28, 2022
Andrew Das
43′ Benzema puts the ball in the net but it’s immediately ruled out for offside, which is probably a relief for Liverpool since they made an absolute mess of that — allowing him in alone on Alisson, clearing it somehow, and then passing it right back to Benzema.
May 28, 2022
Andrew Das
35′ Another cross to Salah, another strong header, another save for Courtois, since it was straight at him. Rory is right: Liverpool may come to regret all these chances without a payoff.
May 28, 2022
Andrew Das
25′ Vinícius Junior, possibly bored or just looking to start … something, rockets a cross from the left wing in the direction of Benzema, who was lurking near the back post. But Alisson was there, too, and he easily plucks it out of the air.
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Thomas Coex/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
May 28, 2022
Tariq Panja
A group of VIPs were delayed because of a problem scanning QR codes attached to their tickets. A member of one group told The Times, he and his contingent, scaled a fence to get to their seats and watched as the police fought with spectators.
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May 28, 2022
Rory Smith
22' Jürgen Klopp talked a few days ago about the danger of “leaving the door open” for Real Madrid — that, the Liverpool coach felt, was what allowed Real to sneak past P.S.G. in the last 16 — and he will be concerned that his team is doing precisely that. Missing chances against Real Madrid tends to be a cause of regret.
May 28, 2022
Andrew Das
21′ As Mané pings the post with another great chance it’s clear that Liverpool really has Real Madrid on its heels now.
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Kevin Coombs/Reuters
May 28, 2022
Andrew Das
16′ Best chance so far: Alexander-Arnold presses into the area from the right and crosses for Salah, who stabs at the ball in close, forcing a diving save from Courtois. He barely got a hand on it, even if there wasn’t a ton of sting on Salah’s attempt.
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Catherine Ivill/Getty Images
May 28, 2022
Andrew Das
13′ Liverpool has shifted out of the cagey start and is really probing the gaps in Real Madrid’s lines now. Mané and Salah just attacked the center, and when that didn’t work Liverpool recycled the ball to Díaz on the left, and he took at run at two defenders before losing the ball in the penalty area.
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May 28, 2022
Tariq Panja
12' While most people outside the stadium were legitimate ticket holders, there were efforts by individuals to scale the fences to enter the stadium concourse. Most of those appeared to not be affiliated to either team. But the police inside the stadium responded by closing some of the gates inside the arena and stationing stewards at their entrances.
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Christophe Ena/Associated Press
May 28, 2022
Tariq Panja
Ronan Evan, the executive director of Football Supporters Europe, an umbrella group for fans, told The New York Times: "Fans at the Champions League final bear no responsibility for tonight’s fiasco. They are victims here. Thousands are still trapped outside the stadium, remaining calm in the face of a completely unreasonable situation.
We urge the relevant authorities to ensure the safety of all fans."
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Credit...
Reuters
May 28, 2022
Andrew Das
7′ A typically cautious start gets a little burst of energy from a Valverde run down Real Madrid’s right, and then an Alexander-Arnold dash up the other side going the other way.
May 28, 2022
Andrew Das
Via Tariq outside:
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May 28, 2022
Andrew Das
1′ We are underway. Liverpool in its customary red and Real Madrid, Los Blancos, in its usual white.
May 28, 2022
Rory Smith
UEFA will hope that the game — when it does start — proves worth the wait; it desperately needs something to distract from the colossal organizational failure that has seen its showpiece game delayed by almost 40 minutes.
Carlo Ancelotti, the Real Madrid coach, suggested this week that there has not been a truly great final since 2005 — when he was in charge of the A.C. Milan team beaten, improbably, by Liverpool — but that is a slightly harsh assessment: 2011, 2013 and 2017 have all been thoroughly entertaining, too.
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Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters
May 28, 2022
Andrew Das
The two captains, Liverpool’s Jordan Henderson and Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema, meet for the coin toss and a handshake. Here we go.
May 28, 2022
Andrew Das
The players have emerged from the tunnel and lined up, the Champions League anthem has played and this game — bizarrely — is about to begin. Let’s hope the situation outside has been sorted, and no one comes to regret the decision to start.
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May 28, 2022
The Champions League Final was delayed amid chaotic scenes outside the stadium’s crowded gates.
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The kickoff of the Champions League final between Liverpool and Real Madrid, the biggest game of the European soccer calendar, was delayed at least 30 minutes on Saturday while chaotic scenes played out at the stadium gates at the Stade de France outside Paris.
A logjam of supporters who were unable to enter the stadium on time resulted in angry scenes where fans, many of them holding tickets, were met by helmeted police wielding pepper spray as they tried to maintain order. The police used what appeared to be pepper spray on the fans through the stadium fencing, leaving many coughing and rubbing their eyes.
Two 15-minute delays were announced, and the teams briefly returned to the field for a second warm-up. UEFA, the tournament’s organizer, then went ahead, incongruously, with an elaborate pregame ceremony starring the singer Camila Cabello, and then the players took the field — more than 30 minutes late.
Liverpool dominated the scoreless first half, but failed to take advantage of several excellent scoring chances.
UEFA officials appeared to lay the blame for the trouble outside before the match on “late-arriving fans,” even though huge crowds had been stuck at the gates for hours before the scheduled kickoff.
Like your timeline has been full of people saying “there’s lots of fans outside” for three hours. You know it’s not because of the “late arrival” of anyone.
— Rory Smith (@RorySmith)
May 28, 2022
Ronan Evan, the executive director of Football Supporters Europe, an umbrella group for fans, told The New York Times: “Fans at the Champions League final bear no responsibility for tonight’s fiasco. They are victims here. Thousands are still trapped outside the stadium, remaining calm in the face of a completely unreasonable situation. We urge the relevant authorities to ensure the safety of all fans.”
May 28, 2022
Tariq Panja
Thousands of Liverpool fans are still stuck outside the stadium choking on pepper spray as the opening ceremony, starring Camila Cabello, incongruously begins on the stadium's playing surface. A steward has confirmed that a substance was sprayed in the direction of supporters
May 28, 2022
Tariq Panja
The police are equipped with riot shields, helmets and pepper spray and have run toward a group of Liverpool fans. Many are holding tickets and showing them to stewards, pleading to be let in, and others are coughing and rubbing their eyes after the police indiscriminately sprayed them.
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Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters
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May 28, 2022
Tariq Panja
I have just seen the police use pepper spray on the fans outside.
Video
Credit
Credit...
By Tariq Panja
May 28, 2022
Andrew Das
Kickoff has been delayed another 15 minutes, and now is set for 9:30 in Paris (3:30 Eastern). The teams have returned to the field to warm up again, which is not an ideal way to prepare.
May 28, 2022
Andrew Das
TV images still show huge patches of empty seats in the Liverpool end. Images from fans show closed gates.
May 28, 2022
Tariq Panja
The game is still on hold.
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May 28, 2022
Tariq Panja
The Stade de France, in a suburb outside Paris, was built for the 1998 World Cup and has hosted several big games since then, including the 2016 European Championship final. Fans have, though, previously complained about trouble gaining entry into the facility. The problems evoke memories of the chaotic scenes outside London’s Wembley Stadium ahead of last year’s European Championship final. That day, thousands of ticketless fans pushed their way inside, leading to dangerous conditions.
May 28, 2022
Rory Smith
It is worth pointing out that the Stade de France is, like Wembley, a new stadium, and that therefore the issues outside should not be happening.
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Shaun Botterill/Getty Images
May 28, 2022
Tariq Panja
Fans outside the stadium have been trapped for more than an hour in long lines with few entry gates apparently open. The situation outside the stadium also meant a bus carrying VIPs could not deliver them to the arena on time.
May 28, 2022
Tariq Panja
The chaotic scenes outside the Stade de France, where many Liverpool supporters have found themselves stuck in bottleneck lines, has led to the final being delayed. An announcement was made inside the stadium, telling fans there would be an update in 15 minutes. There has been no modern precedent for a delay to a Champions League final despite issues with ticketing and entry affecting finals in years past.
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May 28, 2022
The New York Times
A Champions League X-factor: the grass.
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A new grass field, grown in Spain, was laid at the Stade de France from Tuesday to early Thursday morning.
Credit...
Franck Fife/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
The field at the Stade de France is brand new, and that is not always a good thing.
Jürgen Klopp raised a few concerns about the playing surface on Friday. The grass was imported from Spain, and the process to remove the old turf and roll out the new took place over several days this week. The final pieces were laid early Thursday morning.
“That someone thought it was a good idea to bring the pitch the day before to the stadium is an interesting idea,” Klopp said, quickly noting he wasn’t “moaning” but that he had some issues.
“I don’t know how bad or good it is, I only saw it,” he said. “The refs were training on it and I saw the ball bouncing.
“Maybe it’s perfect, but it looks not perfect.”
Klopp said some of the seams where the pieces of turf meet were still visible, which holds the potential for danger — or even just ill-timed slips — as fans of certain New York-based soccer teams are well aware.
Still, Klopp tried to move quickly to quash the fire he had just lit, saying, “I hope no one makes a story about ‘Klopp moaning about the pitch.’ I’m fine.
“This pitch is new since yesterday, which is not the best news. But it will be the same for both teams.”
May 28, 2022
The New York Times
The parable of Luis Díaz.
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Credit...
Paul Ellis/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Rory Smith
sat down this week with Liverpool forward Luis Díaz
, whose speed and skills and game-changing energy have made him a fan favorite on Merseyside even though he only joined the club in January.
What Rory found was a player proud of his heritage in an often-forgotten corner of Colombia; a star eager to clear up a host of fictions and exaggerations that have perpetuated in stories written by people who never bothered to talk to him; and, perhaps most important, a story about how the global search for talent misses more prospects than you think.
The broad arc of his journey is familiar. Díaz had an underprivileged upbringing in Colombia’s most deprived area. He had to leave home as a teenager and travel for six hours, by bus, to train with a professional team. He was so slender at the time that John Jairo Diaz, one of his early coaches, nicknamed him “noodle.” His first club, believing he was suffering from malnutrition, placed him on a special diet to help him gain weight.
Though its contours are, perhaps, a little more extreme, that story is not all that dissimilar to the experiences of many of Díaz’s peers, an overwhelming majority of whom faced hardship and made remarkable sacrifices on their way to the top.
What makes Díaz’s story different, though, and what makes it especially significant, is where it started. Díaz does not know of any other Wayúu players. “Not at the moment, anyway, not ones who are professional,” he said.
There is a reason for that. Scouts do not often make their way to La Guajira to look for players. Colombia’s clubs do not, as a rule, commit resources to finding future stars among the country’s Indigenous communities. It is that which lends Díaz’s story its power. It is not just a story about how he made it. It is also a story about why so many others do not.
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May 28, 2022
The New York Times
There’s a lot of history to Saturday’s matchup.
Image
Liverpool and Real Madrid met in the 2018 final in Kyiv.
Credit...
Lluis Gene/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
You might be asking yourself: Haven’t we seen this movie before?
Well, yes, in a way. Both Liverpool and Real Madrid have been regulars in the latter stages of the Champions League, and regular visitors to the final, over the last decade.
Liverpool is playing for the trophy for the third time in five years, a stretch of some of the most thrilling — and most beautiful — soccer in its proud history. Real Madrid is in the final for the fifth time since 2014; in each of its previous four visits since then, its fans will quickly point out, it has left town with the trophy.
But despite their storied histories, both near-term and more ancient, Liverpool and Real Madrid have met in the final only twice.
Liverpool beat Real Madrid, 1-0, in 1981, when the tournament was still known as the European Cup, and when it was Liverpool that was in the midst of a string of recent titles.
Real Madrid won the rematch by 3-1 in 2018, continuing its own string of recent titles.
How long ago was that? Trent Alexander-Arnold was still
a fresh-faced teenager
back then, and Gareth Bale was still a player Real Madrid liked to use from time to time.
That final still stings for Liverpool, which endured two horrible mistakes by goalkeeper Loris Karius that sealed its fate (and his at Anfield) and lost forward Mohamed Salah to a separated shoulder after an ugly tackle from Real Madrid supervillain/legend (descriptions may vary) Sergio Ramos in the first half.
Salah was forced from the game after the tackle, in which Ramos had hooked his arm as they fell. Ramos no longer plays for Madrid, but Salah does not appear to have forgotten.
“We have a score to settle,” he said this week.
May 28, 2022
Tariq Panja
As fans continue to stream toward the Stade de France, it is looking uncomfortably crowded in some spots outside.
May 28, 2022
Andrew Das
Today will be the first full-house Champions League final since Liverpool beat Tottenham in 2019 in Madrid, way back before none of us knew what the coronavirus was. Bayern Munich beat P.S.G. in an empty arena a year later, and Chelsea held off Manchester City in an all-Premier League final last year.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/05/29/sports/champions-league-final
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Credit...
David Ramos/Getty Images
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May 28, 2022
Method vs. magic: How the final might go.
Image
Credit...
Paul Ellis, Gabriell Bouys/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Liverpool Manager Jürgen Klopp said it himself this week: If the Real Madrid of the last two minutes against Manchester City, the last 10 against Chelsea and the final half-hour against Paris St-Germain was Liverpool’s opponent in the Champions League final, there would be no point even staging the game. Just give Real Madrid the trophy and save everyone the bother.
TV AND STREAMING
Saturday’s final will be broadcast by CBS (English) and TUDN (Spanish) in the United States, and streamed on Paramount Plus. Kickoff is at 3 p.m. Eastern.
It is Klopp’s job, obviously, to look beyond those brief spells of invincibility. He is well aware that there is no stopping Real Madrid when it feels
history and destiny
on its shoulder; all he can do is try to stop that feeling arriving in the first place.
It is one of the curiosities of Real Madrid’s run to the final — not one that was widely anticipated — that Carlo Ancelotti’s team has probably only been the better team in one of its six knockout games thus far. Real was imperious in the first leg against Chelsea. That aside, it has had to weather fairly consistent storms.
That is no criticism. It is, instead, testament to its obduracy and its resilience and its talent, too, that it has endured, and done so in such dramatic fashion. Chelsea, Manchester City and P.S.G. could not disabuse Real Madrid of its abiding belief in its own agency; Ancelotti and his players have plenty of reason to be confident that Liverpool will go the same way.
One reading of this final is that Real Madrid’s luck has to run out at some point. Another is that perhaps it hasn’t been luck. Perhaps it is something else, something tangible, something that can be reproduced.
May 28, 2022
The New York Times
Have you signed up for our soccer newsletter? You should.
Would you like a little more global soccer in your inbox every week? Europe and the rest of the world. World Cup. Women’s soccer. Signings. Sketchy business. Sign up for Rory Smith’s newsletter, and for The New York Times for that matter, at
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May 28, 2022
The New York Times
Liverpool’s lineup: No injuries, so no changes.
Fabinho and Thiago were the only minor injury concerns for Liverpool, but each returned to training this week and both start against Real Madrid.
Klopp’s attack of Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mané and Luis Diaz is as aggressive as he can get, and a sign that Liverpool is ready to trade punches, and goals, as needed.
An early one (or two) could ease the pressure on a back line that never seems to get a day off. But keep an eye on Thiago early: His precision passing has been legendary lately, and if he’s fully fit, he could be a difference maker in springing the forwards running ahead of him.
May 28, 2022
The New York Times
Private parties act as a pregame warm-up.
Image
Real Madrid fans at the Paris City Hall.
Credit...
Christophe Petit Tesson/EPA, via Shutterstock
Fans of Real Madrid and Liverpool appeared to be complying Saturday with the efforts of organizers eager to keep them out of trouble, and out of the center of Paris.
Separate fan zones were arranged for each club, and on Saturday afternoon they both filled with thousands of revelers. At Liverpool’s, the crowd was busy reprising old favorites and rewriting Beatles lyrics:
At Real Madrid’s rally, which had more of a picnic vibe than the Liverpool concert, the club rolled out the Madrid legends Roberto Carlos and Iker Casillas, among others, as hype men:
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May 28, 2022
Andrew Das
Liverpool looks like it could fill the Stade de France itself.
May 28, 2022
The New York Times
Real Madrid’s lineup: No surprises.
Real Madrid’s Carlo Ancelotti settled into his preferred lineup long ago, and he is not making any changes for the final. He was so certain, in fact, that he put it out more than two hours before kickoff.
The midfield of Toni Kroos, Luka Modric and Casemiro may be a bit older than they were when they started the 2018 final against Liverpool, but would anyone bet against them?
Karim Benzema, who has played like the world’s best player in the Champions League knockout rounds, leads the attack, and Éder Militão and David Alaba once again anchor the defense.
Federico Valverde will start with Vinícius Junior flanking Benzema, but expect to see Rodrygo — the hero of the Manchester City comeback — at some point.
May 28, 2022
The New York Times
Man of the moment: Real Madrid’s Florentino Pérez.
Image
Credit...
David Fernandez/EPA, via Shutterstock
The Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez was always an imperfect spokesman for the Super League, even though he was largely responsible for its creation, and when it came and went last year in a 48-hour supernova of anger, betrayal and recriminations, much of the blame was laid at his feet.
He sought to recover by openly courting the French striker Kylian Mbappé for much of the next 12 months. When Mbappé decided last week to stay at Paris St.-Germain, it was another blow for Pérez.
Ordinarily, at a club as proud and demanding as Real Madrid, those twin embarrassments would be enough to spark some sense of mutiny. Pérez, though, remains as powerful, as unassailable as ever.
Rory Smith helpfully explains
why that is
.
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May 28, 2022
Paris dispatch: Quiet on the streets, and peace at the dinner table.
Image
Credit...
Franck Fife/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
France is the center for world sports this weekend, with the Champions League final at the Stade de France in the northern suburb of Saint-Denis,
the French Open
across town at Roland Garros and Formula One’s
Monaco Grand Prix
on the south coast, if you prefer your sporting twists and turns in the literal sense.
The biggest pregame drama may have come at a UEFA dinner on Friday night. That was the first time that Real Madrid’s president, Florentino Pérez, and the UEFA president, Aleksander Ceferin, had met in person since a Pérez-led effort
to create a European Super League
failed spectacularly just over a year ago.
Pérez, who is still suing UEFA over the Super League’s demise, and Ceferin, who called some of the plotters behind it “snakes” and “liars,” sat alongside one another at an official dinner at the Louvre on Friday night. They even posed for a photo:
Addressing the gathering, Pérez reminded guests of his team’s pedigree when it comes to the European Cup. Real Madrid won the first competition, after all, in 1956 — the first of its record 13 titles — and the four that followed. It has now played a quarter of the all the finals that have been contested, in fact, including — after Saturday — five of the past nine.
The mood on the streets ahead of the dinner was considerably less tense. That might have been related to a warning issued to supporters of both teams that they risked fines of 135 euros (almost $150) if they turned up wearing club colors in places like the Eiffel Tower or the Champs Élysées, the grand avenue that is typically flooded with visitors.
#CLFINAL
@LFCHELP
@SPIRITOFSHANKLY
As of 15.00 on 26.05 until 18.00 on Sunday 29.05 it is prohibited to wear any football club colours in the area of the Champs Elysees. This includes scarves, hats, displaying banners etc. The police can issue a 135 Euro fine.
— MerPol Liverpool FC (@MerPolLFC)
May 27, 2022
Instead, fans of the rival teams were guided to separate venues closer to the city limits. That could have been normal policing caution, fears of the coronavirus or the fact that France may not be entirely thrilled to have the game: It only got the hosting rights in February, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine made it untenable to go to the original host city,
St. Petersburg
, and after Ceferin rushed to Paris to make a personal appeal to France’s president, Emmanuel Macron.
Still, the final — the first to be played in front of a full stadium since Liverpool last won the tournament in 2019 — did attract the well-heeled and well-connected, with UEFA’s luxury hotel a magnet for former players, high-ranking officials, politicians, agents and assorted extras.
And at least one business was booming:
May 28, 2022
The New York Times
Here are your TV and streaming options for the final.
Image
Credit...
Molly Darlington/Reuters
Saturday’s final will be broadcast by CBS (English) and TUDN (Spanish) in the United States, and streamed on Paramount Plus. Kickoff is at 3 p.m. Eastern but coverage begins at 1:30 p.m.
Not in the United States? You can find your local viewing options — from Canal+ to Canal Dos to the wonderfully named Silknet and Wowow — on
this list of UEFA’s television partners
.
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May 28, 2022
How the teams got here.
Image
Rodrygo and Vinícius Junior: makers of knockout-round miracles.
Credit...
Gabriel Bouys/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Neither Real Madrid nor Liverpool can be considered a surprise entry in today’s final, given their decorated pasts and their gilded histories in the competition. But their paths to Paris this year were, in fact, quite different.
Real Madrid faced all the so-called new money clubs in the knockout rounds, and in doing so came face to face with elimination multiple times. That meant digging deep when all seemed lost
against Paris St. Germain
; mounting not one but two comebacks
against Chelsea
; and — in perhaps the most thrilling day of the tournament to date — scoring two goals after the clock hit 90 minutes to force extra time, and then scoring again there
to beat Manchester City
.
By then, even some of its own fans had left the stadium, unable to face the prospect of watching the referee blow the final whistle on the home team. Instead, they missed one last moment of magic in a spring
filled with them
.
Yet where Real Madrid’s route to Saint-Denis on Saturday was littered with dangerous obstacles, repeated jeopardy and momentary doubts, Liverpool’s path could not have been smoother.
A favorable knockout-round draw and a helpful upset — not to mention playing some of the best soccer in the club’s history — meant that its opponents were swatted aside relative ease. First
Inter Milan
. Then
Benfica
. Even after it gave up a 2-0 advantage from the first leg of its semifinal inside the first half of the return game against Villarreal, Liverpool regrouped and, in the blink of an eye, stormed to victory
with three unanswered goals
.
Liverpool has, of course, be in this spot before: It lost to Real Madrid in the 2018 final. But it got up, sobered up (
in Jürgen Klopp’s case
at least), dusted itself off and returned the next year, winning the title — in Madrid — against Tottenham.
“Some of their players can win it for a fifth time and the manager can win it for the fourth time.” Klopp said of his counterpart Carlo Ancelotti. “We can’t buy that experience, but we’re here for the third time in five years — that’s special.”
Image
"If we are on the top of our game we are difficult to play, really difficult to play," Liverpool's Jürgen Klopp said. "That is my only concern at the moment."
Credit...
Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters |
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# Champions League FinalChampions League Final: Real Madrid Beats Liverpool for 14th Title
Vinícius Junior’s goal saw Real Madrid extend its record for victories in European soccer’s biggest game. The final’s kickoff was delayed more than 30 minutes because of chaotic scenes at the overcrowded stadium gates.
[](https://www.nytimes.com/by/rory-smith)[](https://www.nytimes.com/by/tariq-panja)[](https://www.nytimes.com/by/andrew-das)
By [Rory Smith](https://www.nytimes.com/by/rory-smith)[Tariq Panja](https://www.nytimes.com/by/tariq-panja) and [Andrew Das](https://www.nytimes.com/by/andrew-das)
Published May 28, 2022Updated May 5, 2025
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## [Real Madrid Wins the Champions League, Putting Method Over Magic](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/05/28/sports/champions-league-final#real-madrid-wins-the-champions-league-claiming-its-14th-european-title)
Image
Credit...Anne-Christine Poujoulat/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Deep down, Real Madrid does not believe in magic. Or, rather, it does not only believe in magic. It might have spent much of the last three months apparently touched by some golden light, its run to the Champions League final a dream of stirring comebacks and insurmountable odds and impossible triumphs.
Those triumphs, against [Paris St.-Germain](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/09/sports/soccer/real-madrid-psg-benzema.html) and [Chelsea](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/12/sports/soccer/chelsea-real-madrid-champions-league.html) and [Manchester City](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/04/sports/soccer/real-madrid-man-city-champions-league.html), might have seemed to prove that ultimate victory in this competition is Real Madrid’s irrevocable destiny, that it is driven by some elemental, unstoppable force, one that defies rational explanation and brooks no resistance.
After the curtain had been lifted and the veil drawn, though, when reality’s cold light poured in, there was no magic at all. There was, instead, just a plan: a painstakingly crafted and expertly executed plan that ended, as it always seemed like it would, with Real Madrid lifting yet another European Cup.
That, in a sense, was the twist: There was no twist. Real Madrid beat Liverpool, 1-0, on Saturday in Paris with a performance of ruthless efficiency, of meticulous organization, of clinical obduracy. To do so, it required not only a single goal, scored by Vinícius Junior, but really only a single attack, a single move, a single chance.
It leaned, it is true, reasonably heavily on its goalkeeper, Thibaut Courtois, in those fleeting moments when Liverpool — another team in possession of a very particular sense of its own destiny — seemed to be gathering a head of steam. But it is one of soccer’s most cherished misapprehensions that having a good goalkeeper is just another form of luck.
They are part of the team, too, after all; to beat Real Madrid, it is necessary to beat Courtois, and the reason the former is so difficult is because the latter, at times, appears to skirt the impossible. Real Madrid could risk absorbing pressure, conceding chances, safe in the knowledge that Courtois is a redoubtable last line of defense.
Image
Thibaut Courtois turned back Mohamed Salah and his teammates again and again.Credit...Lee Smith/Reuters
Even he, though, found his role diminishing as the game wore on. Those last few minutes, as Real Madrid waited impatiently to claim its glory, did not build to some deafening climax. Instead, if anything, the game ambled gently to a close. There were some substitutions. Liverpool committed some injudicious and unnecessary fouls. Real dawdled over some free kicks. The whistle blew. The trophy was presented. Everyone went home.
It felt, in truth, like something of a non sequitur: Not only because Real Madrid has spent the spring finding ever more improbable ways to win games, but because that sort of drama is now [an essential ingredient](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/29/sports/soccer/champions-league-real-madrid-liverpool.html) in this competition.
Breathless fervor, something bordering on persistent mayhem, has become the hallmark of the modern Champions League. It is what has helped turn it, for all the enduring concerns over its domination by a tiny cabal of clubs from a small group of countries, into such a consistently compelling spectacle. No victory is ever secure. No game is ever over. Nothing is ever certain. That is what makes it so compelling.
Saturday’s final, by contrast — delayed by more than half an hour because of [a complete organizational breakdown outside the Stade de France](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/05/28/sports/champions-league-final#ucl-final-fake-tickets-delay) — seemed to belong to a prior incarnation of the tournament, when European soccer’s showpiece occasions were far more tentative, when the slightest mistake tended to prove fatal, when games were decided by which team seized individual moments, rather than which could best harness some elusive, vaguely ethereal form of momentum.
And yet, below the surface, there was an undeniable thematic consistency to Real Madrid’s victory, its record 14th title in the competition. The composite may have seemed distinct from all of the games that brought Carlo Ancelotti’s team to Paris — and the coach himself to a record fifth Champions League final — but the strands were almost exactly the same.
Image
Karim Benzema, left, didn’t need to produce more magic in the final. Credit...David Ramos/Getty Images
Jürgen Klopp, the Liverpool coach, spoke last week of Real Madrid’s ability to “keep the door open.” In all of its previous knockout games, it had faced moments when elimination seemed all but certain but still found a way to cling on. What looked like magic was underpinned by the distinctly material virtues of resilience, and courage, and indomitability.
So it was in Paris. For all that Liverpool and Real Madrid have in common — both are members of European soccer’s aristocrat class, both believe themselves to have a special relationship with the Champions League — their approaches to maintaining their modern superiority could not diverge more sharply.
Liverpool is a reflection of what soccer has become, an information-soaked industrial complex, in which [no gain is too marginal](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/27/sports/soccer/liverpool-jurgen-klopp-team-nutritionist.html), in which decisions are driven by data, in which even throw-ins can be weaponized, made more efficient. It has worked, too: This was the club’s third Champions League final in five years.
Real Madrid, on the other hand, tends toward a slightly more simplified interpretation. The team that wins, as far as Real can tell, generally employs the better players, up to and including the one wearing gloves. Not simply in terms of talent, but experience, grit, composure under the most intense pressure and a refusal to wilt, too.
Ancelotti’s team displayed all of those qualities in abundance. It did not so much as blink as Liverpool fizzed and fretted around its penalty area in the first half. At times, Real Madrid seemed to be standing still, daring its opponent to try to forge an opening.
Nor did it freeze after Vinícius had taken his chance — the chance — and Liverpool had nothing left to lose. Real Madrid’s players seemed blissfully unaffected by the ticking of the clock. They did not hurry or panic or sink back on themselves. They looked, instead, as if they had all the time in the world.
Image
Vinícius Junior delivered the game’s only goal.Credit...Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters
Perhaps that should not be a surprise. After all, for a considerable proportion of the team, this was a fifth Champions League final. They have been here before, time and time again, and they know how it turns out. They know what is required, and it is not magic. Magic, after all, is just a way of explaining the parts of reality that you do not understand, and Real Madrid understand this all too well.
Far better, instead, to have a plan, painstakingly crafted and perfectly executed and always ending in the same way, the way it ended here: in a blizzard of white ticker tape and Real Madrid, beaming, holding the European Cup aloft.
Show more
May 28, 2022, 5:47 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
Andrew Das
The former Real Madrid striker Raúl gets the honor of carrying the trophy out to the medals stand, his former club’s name now etched into it yet again.
May 28, 2022, 5:46 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
Andrew Das
Defeat will be a bitter blow for Liverpool, which has now lost the final twice in five years, both times against Real Madrid. Jürgen Klopp’s team, which only a week ago still harbored hopes of four trophies from this season, now must settle for only two — the Carabao Cup and the F.A. Cup — after coming up a point short in the Premier League and a goal short in the Champions League.
Image
Credit...Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters
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May 28, 2022, 5:34 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
Andrew Das
FULL TIME: Real Madrid 1, Liverpool 0. That’s 14 European titles for them, more than double any other club.
Image
Credit...Matthias Hangst/Getty Images
May 28, 2022, 5:30 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
Andrew Das
90′ Five minutes of added time.
May 28, 2022, 5:30 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
Andrew Das
90′ Dani Ceballos, who came on along with Eudardo Camavinga as a game-killing sub for Modric, nearly wins it by slipping behind the defense. But he botches the chance, Liverpool scrambles to push the ball out for a corner, and we continue at 1-0. Not much time left.
[](https://www.nytimes.com/by/tariq-panja)
May 28, 2022, 5:28 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
[Tariq Panja](https://www.nytimes.com/by/tariq-panja)
## [UEFA blames the delay of the Champions League final on ‘fake tickets.’](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/05/28/sports/champions-league-final#ucl-final-fake-tickets-delay)
Image
Credit...Matthias Hangst/Getty Images
PARIS — A logjam of fans that led to a 35-minute delay of the start of Saturday’s [Champions League final](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/05/28/sports/champions-league-final#real-madrid-wins-the-champions-league-claiming-its-14th-european-title) between Real Madrid and Liverpool was caused by people attempting to use “fake tickets” to enter the match, the tournament’s organizer said.
The problems with crowd control and access — which appeared to result from organizational failures rather than crowd misbehavior — saw thousands of fans, many of them Liverpool supporters with valid tickets, trapped in lines for hours, with few gates available for entry and a shortage of staff members on the ground.
The confusion left fans locked out of their team’s biggest game of the season, and created a potentially dangerous situation in which French police officers, wearing helmets and carrying shields, used canisters of what UEFA, which runs the Champions League, said was tear gas to keep the surging crowds at bay.
“In the lead-up to the game, the turnstiles at the Liverpool end became blocked by thousands of fans who had purchased fake tickets which did not work in the turnstiles,” UEFA said in [its statement](https://twitter.com/tariqpanja/status/1530662285777289222?s=20&t=UhJvBrYjkAsErSzwjtuL1g). “This created a buildup of fans trying to get in. As a result, the kickoff was delayed by 35 minutes to allow as many fans as possible with genuine tickets to gain access.”
The statement went on, “As numbers outside the stadium continued to build up after kickoff, the police dispersed them with tear gas and forced them away from the stadium.”
In the chaos, fans pleaded with stadium stewards to be allowed in, pressing their tickets through the iron gates, and many were left coughing and gasping for breath on the sidewalks outside the Stade de France, a modern arena built for the 1998 World Cup.
Image
Fans were stopped by police at the turnstiles of the Stade de France, as the Champions League final was delayed.Credit...Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters
Other fans looked for alternate ways in, climbing fences and locked gates. One group of V.I.P.s, delayed because of a problem scanning the Q.R. codes attached to their tickets, scaled a fence in an effort to get to their seats. Once over it, one of the officials said, they watched as the police fought with spectators still outside.
Inside the stadium, where the teams had completed their warm-ups, two 15-minute delays were announced. But even before the crowds outside had dispersed, UEFA went ahead, incongruously, with an elaborate pregame ceremony starring the singer Camila Cabello. Once she finished, the teams took the field and traded handshakes, and the final began.
Police officers stationed at the entrances to the stadium pinned much of the blame for the chaos on the local population of the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis, where the stadium is located, saying it was not fans wearing the colors of the competing teams but those dressed in what they described as “civilian clothing” who had tried to enter the stadium without tickets.
But France’s interior minister, Gerald Darmanin, repeated UEFA’s version of events [in a Twitter post](https://twitter.com/GDarmanin/status/1530666495290011648?s=20&t=UhJvBrYjkAsErSzwjtuL1g). “Thousands of British ‘supporters’ without tickets or with counterfeit tickets forced entry and sometimes assaulted the stewards,” he wrote. “Thank you to the very many police forces mobilized this evening in this difficult context.”
Fans blamed a lack of organization, saying several entrance gates were closed, forcing those attending the game to funnel into long lines that developed into [a crush of bodies](https://twitter.com/paulsenior1/status/1530624175718776832) as kickoff time neared.
UEFA officials initially seemed to lay the blame for the problems on “late-arriving fans,” even though huge crowds had been stuck at the gates for hours before the scheduled kickoff.
Tommy Smith, a Liverpool fan who had traveled to Paris from Ireland with a group of friends and family, said his group had arrived two hours before the scheduled kickoff and found that there were few entrances where fans could present their tickets. “They closed every turnstile Liverpool-related,” Smith said. “Fans waited two hours, orderly, nothing out of order, and we were tear-gassed.” He said there was little information or direction from stadium staff.
> Like your timeline has been full of people saying “there’s lots of fans outside” for three hours. You know it’s not because of the “late arrival” of anyone.
>
> — Rory Smith (@RorySmith) [May 28, 2022](https://twitter.com/RorySmith/status/1530632386014216192?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
Liverpool released [a statement](https://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/liverpool-fc-statement-ucl-final-entry-issues) during the game in which it said the club was “hugely disappointed at the stadium entry issues and breakdown of the security perimeter that Liverpool fans faced.” The team said it had requested a formal investigation into the events.
Ronan Evan, the executive director of Football Supporters Europe, an umbrella group for fans, told The New York Times that the fans were blameless.
“Fans at the Champions League final bear no responsibility for tonight’s fiasco,” he said. “They are victims here.”
By halftime, a UEFA security official said, the Stade de France had been locked down, with all entrances and exits closed, while the police were still deploying tear gas outside the stadium concourses.
“For now it’s safer for you inside than outside,” the UEFA official told an Australian executive looking to leave the stadium at halftime. The security official said that “it was a police decision” to close entry and exit points.
In its statement after the game, UEFA said it would investigate the causes of the crowd problems, which came almost a year after surging crowds of ticketless fans attending the European Championship at Wembley Stadium, in London, overwhelmed stewards to gain access to the final of that tournament. The tournament was also a UEFA event.
“UEFA is sympathetic to those affected by these events,” the organization said, “and will further review these matters urgently together with the French police and authorities, and with the French Football Federation.”
Show more
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May 28, 2022, 5:23 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
Andrew Das
83′ Real Madrid nearly seals it on the counter, with Kroos and Benzema and Vinícius driving against a reeling defense. But after carving up Liverpool, Benzema leads Vinícius too far and Alisson smothers the chance. Big moment. And now back comes Liverpool. Tick, tick, tick ….
May 28, 2022, 5:20 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
Andrew Das
82′ Minutes after a Salah shot almost rolls into the path of Jota (before Courtois intervenes) a great chance falls to Keita at the top of the area. With time to shoot, though, he mis-hits it badly, to the groans of tens of thousands.
Now Salah is in again … and Courtois brushes that one away too!!!\!
Image
Credit...Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters
May 28, 2022, 5:18 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
Andrew Das
77′ Double sub for Liverpool: Naby Keita (for Henderson) and Roberto Firmino (for Thiago) come on for the final push. Madrid is tiring, but Ancelotti looks less interested in changing a thing.
May 28, 2022, 5:15 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
Andrew Das
76′ Curious decision from Casemiro there: A Kroos free kick finds him alone behind the Liverpool back line, and rather than shoot he tries to cut a pass back into the middle. But he scuffs it badly, and none of the three other Madrid players who are in behind with him even get a chance to shoot.
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May 28, 2022, 5:12 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
Rory Smith
75' That clock will be moving troublingly quickly for Liverpool. In the time since Real Madrid’s goal, Jürgen Klopp’s team has struggled to create even the most slender of openings, one glimmer of a chance for Salah aside. There are the first signs of a team starting to rush, too; Trent Alexander-Arnold, in particular, has yet to find his range.
Image
Credit...Julian Finney/Getty Images
May 28, 2022, 5:08 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
Andrew Das
69′ Courtois saves Madrid — again — after a long cross from the right finds Jota at the back post. He lollipops a header back across the gaping goal and Salah screams in to meet it. But the time it takes for the ball to fall to earth is just enough for Courtois to scramble over and hurl himself in front of the collision of it with Salah’s foot.
Image
Credit...Lee Smith/Reuters
May 28, 2022, 5:04 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
Andrew Das
65′ Liverpool makes the game’s first change: Luis Díaz is off, replaced by Diogo Jota. Díaz struggled to make his presence felt but his replacement, Jota, is a poacher and goal-chaser. His team really needs one now.
May 28, 2022, 5:01 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
Andrew Das
Vinícius is a great scorer but that could not have been an easier finish for him:
> VINICIUS JR. BREAKTHROUGH FOR REAL MADRID. 💥 [pic.twitter.com/GVzH0BsgvZ](https://t.co/GVzH0BsgvZ)
>
> — CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) [May 28, 2022](https://twitter.com/CBSSportsGolazo/status/1530655089358012416?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
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May 28, 2022, 4:58 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
Andrew Das
59′ Vinícius Junior gets the goal, tucking in a low drive from Valverde at the back post with impeccable timing.
May 28, 2022, 4:57 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
Rory Smith
That is what Real Madrid has been waiting for. A single move, simple and effective and ruthless, and all of Liverpool’s superiority is meaningless. Now Carlo Ancelotti’s team gets to play the game it wants: absorbing pressure and picking Liverpool off on the counter attack.
May 28, 2022, 4:56 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
Andrew Das
59′ GOAL! Madrid takes the lead!\!
Image
Credit...Molly Darlington/Reuters
May 28, 2022, 4:56 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
Andrew Das
58′ Two shots for Salah from near the penalty, and after the second he appeals for a handball. The ball was fired into a crowd, and it did hit the arm of David Alaba. But his arm was tucked in, and no referee is giving that.
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May 28, 2022, 4:55 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
Andrew Das
56′ A short delay here as Éder Militão receives some treatment after a collision.
Image
Credit...Dylan Martinez/Reuters
May 28, 2022, 4:47 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
Andrew Das
46′ Back underway at the Stade de France.
May 28, 2022, 4:38 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
Tariq Panja
A UEFA security official said the Stade de France has been locked down, with all entrances and exits closed. The official said the police were still deploying tear gas outside the stadium concourse. "For now it’s safer for you inside than outside," he told an Australian executive looking to leave at halftime. The security official said "it was a police decision" to close entry and exit points.
[](https://www.nytimes.com/by/rory-smith)
May 28, 2022, 4:33 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
[Rory Smith](https://www.nytimes.com/by/rory-smith)
## [Halftime review: That was vintage Real Madrid.](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/05/28/sports/champions-league-final#halftime-review-that-was-vintage-real-madrid)
Image
Credit...Lee Smith/Reuters
The first half ends with the perfect encapsulation of Real Madrid’s approach: the Spanish champion has been curiously reticent, even for a team determined to play on the counterattack, for the opening period. It’s a risky tactic for a club so proud: If it fails, Carlo Ancelotti will be accused of diminishing the greatness of Real. The gamble is that it will not fail, that Karim Benzema will get a chance, take it, and glory will belong to Madrid.
And it came within a whisker of working, too. Liverpool had dominated the half — albeit while creating only a couple of genuinely gilt-edged opportunities — but Madrid has come closest to scoring, with Benzema’s late effort ruled out for a slender, and quite possibly subjective, offside.
The VAR review is a narrow escape for Liverpool, especially as Benzema should not really have been offered two bites at the cherry, and a reminder that supremacy, against Real Madrid, is a fickle thing.
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May 28, 2022, 4:27 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
Andrew Das
Halftime. Liverpool hits a post (and Courtois several times) and Real Madrid hits the target once and scores, only to have it ruled out for offside. A frantic finish to the half that started 30 minutes late. Take a breath.
May 28, 2022, 4:25 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
Andrew Das
45′+1 No goal. Huge relief for Liverpool, which was the better team for 44 minutes and then nearly fell behind in a matter of seconds.
Image
Credit...Franck Fife/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
May 28, 2022, 4:23 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
Andrew Das
45′ The confusion is whether Liverpool played the ball to Benzema, which would have played him back onside.
May 28, 2022, 4:22 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
Andrew Das
44′ Hold on: VAR review. Maybe he wasn’t offside??
Image
Credit...Matthias Hangst/Getty Images
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May 28, 2022, 4:22 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
Andrew Das
43′ Benzema puts the ball in the net but it’s immediately ruled out for offside, which is probably a relief for Liverpool since they made an absolute mess of that — allowing him in alone on Alisson, clearing it somehow, and then passing it right back to Benzema.
May 28, 2022, 4:13 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
Andrew Das
35′ Another cross to Salah, another strong header, another save for Courtois, since it was straight at him. Rory is right: Liverpool may come to regret all these chances without a payoff.
May 28, 2022, 4:04 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
Andrew Das
25′ Vinícius Junior, possibly bored or just looking to start … something, rockets a cross from the left wing in the direction of Benzema, who was lurking near the back post. But Alisson was there, too, and he easily plucks it out of the air.
Image
Credit...Thomas Coex/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
May 28, 2022, 4:01 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
Tariq Panja
A group of VIPs were delayed because of a problem scanning QR codes attached to their tickets. A member of one group told The Times, he and his contingent, scaled a fence to get to their seats and watched as the police fought with spectators.
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May 28, 2022, 4:00 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
Rory Smith
22' Jürgen Klopp talked a few days ago about the danger of “leaving the door open” for Real Madrid — that, the Liverpool coach felt, was what allowed Real to sneak past P.S.G. in the last 16 — and he will be concerned that his team is doing precisely that. Missing chances against Real Madrid tends to be a cause of regret.
May 28, 2022, 3:59 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
Andrew Das
21′ As Mané pings the post with another great chance it’s clear that Liverpool really has Real Madrid on its heels now.
Image
Credit...Kevin Coombs/Reuters
May 28, 2022, 3:54 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
Andrew Das
16′ Best chance so far: Alexander-Arnold presses into the area from the right and crosses for Salah, who stabs at the ball in close, forcing a diving save from Courtois. He barely got a hand on it, even if there wasn’t a ton of sting on Salah’s attempt.
Image
Credit...Catherine Ivill/Getty Images
May 28, 2022, 3:52 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
Andrew Das
13′ Liverpool has shifted out of the cagey start and is really probing the gaps in Real Madrid’s lines now. Mané and Salah just attacked the center, and when that didn’t work Liverpool recycled the ball to Díaz on the left, and he took at run at two defenders before losing the ball in the penalty area.
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May 28, 2022, 3:50 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
Tariq Panja
12' While most people outside the stadium were legitimate ticket holders, there were efforts by individuals to scale the fences to enter the stadium concourse. Most of those appeared to not be affiliated to either team. But the police inside the stadium responded by closing some of the gates inside the arena and stationing stewards at their entrances.
Image
Credit...Christophe Ena/Associated Press
May 28, 2022, 3:46 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
Tariq Panja
Ronan Evan, the executive director of Football Supporters Europe, an umbrella group for fans, told The New York Times: "Fans at the Champions League final bear no responsibility for tonight’s fiasco. They are victims here. Thousands are still trapped outside the stadium, remaining calm in the face of a completely unreasonable situation. We urge the relevant authorities to ensure the safety of all fans."
Image
Credit...Reuters
May 28, 2022, 3:45 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
Andrew Das
7′ A typically cautious start gets a little burst of energy from a Valverde run down Real Madrid’s right, and then an Alexander-Arnold dash up the other side going the other way.
May 28, 2022, 3:43 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
Andrew Das
Via Tariq outside:
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May 28, 2022, 3:39 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
Andrew Das
1′ We are underway. Liverpool in its customary red and Real Madrid, Los Blancos, in its usual white.
May 28, 2022, 3:38 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
Rory Smith
UEFA will hope that the game — when it does start — proves worth the wait; it desperately needs something to distract from the colossal organizational failure that has seen its showpiece game delayed by almost 40 minutes.
Carlo Ancelotti, the Real Madrid coach, suggested this week that there has not been a truly great final since 2005 — when he was in charge of the A.C. Milan team beaten, improbably, by Liverpool — but that is a slightly harsh assessment: 2011, 2013 and 2017 have all been thoroughly entertaining, too.
Image
Credit...Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters
May 28, 2022, 3:37 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
Andrew Das
The two captains, Liverpool’s Jordan Henderson and Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema, meet for the coin toss and a handshake. Here we go.
May 28, 2022, 3:37 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
Andrew Das
The players have emerged from the tunnel and lined up, the Champions League anthem has played and this game — bizarrely — is about to begin. Let’s hope the situation outside has been sorted, and no one comes to regret the decision to start.
Image
Credit...Matthias Hangst/Getty Images
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May 28, 2022, 3:34 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
[Tariq Panja](https://www.nytimes.com/by/tariq-panja)
## [The Champions League Final was delayed amid chaotic scenes outside the stadium’s crowded gates.](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/05/28/sports/champions-league-final#the-champions-league-final-was-delayed-amid-chaotic-scenes-outside-the-stadiums-crowded-gates)
Image
Credit...Matthias Hangst/Getty Images
The kickoff of the Champions League final between Liverpool and Real Madrid, the biggest game of the European soccer calendar, was delayed at least 30 minutes on Saturday while chaotic scenes played out at the stadium gates at the Stade de France outside Paris.
A logjam of supporters who were unable to enter the stadium on time resulted in angry scenes where fans, many of them holding tickets, were met by helmeted police wielding pepper spray as they tried to maintain order. The police used what appeared to be pepper spray on the fans through the stadium fencing, leaving many coughing and rubbing their eyes.
Two 15-minute delays were announced, and the teams briefly returned to the field for a second warm-up. UEFA, the tournament’s organizer, then went ahead, incongruously, with an elaborate pregame ceremony starring the singer Camila Cabello, and then the players took the field — more than 30 minutes late.
Liverpool dominated the scoreless first half, but failed to take advantage of several excellent scoring chances.
UEFA officials appeared to lay the blame for the trouble outside before the match on “late-arriving fans,” even though huge crowds had been stuck at the gates for hours before the scheduled kickoff.
> Like your timeline has been full of people saying “there’s lots of fans outside” for three hours. You know it’s not because of the “late arrival” of anyone.
>
> — Rory Smith (@RorySmith) [May 28, 2022](https://twitter.com/RorySmith/status/1530632386014216192?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
Ronan Evan, the executive director of Football Supporters Europe, an umbrella group for fans, told The New York Times: “Fans at the Champions League final bear no responsibility for tonight’s fiasco. They are victims here. Thousands are still trapped outside the stadium, remaining calm in the face of a completely unreasonable situation. We urge the relevant authorities to ensure the safety of all fans.”
Show more
May 28, 2022, 3:26 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
Tariq Panja
Thousands of Liverpool fans are still stuck outside the stadium choking on pepper spray as the opening ceremony, starring Camila Cabello, incongruously begins on the stadium's playing surface. A steward has confirmed that a substance was sprayed in the direction of supporters
May 28, 2022, 3:23 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
Tariq Panja
The police are equipped with riot shields, helmets and pepper spray and have run toward a group of Liverpool fans. Many are holding tickets and showing them to stewards, pleading to be let in, and others are coughing and rubbing their eyes after the police indiscriminately sprayed them.
Image
Credit...Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters
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May 28, 2022, 3:22 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
Tariq Panja
I have just seen the police use pepper spray on the fans outside.
Video
CreditCredit...By Tariq Panja
May 28, 2022, 3:10 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
Andrew Das
Kickoff has been delayed another 15 minutes, and now is set for 9:30 in Paris (3:30 Eastern). The teams have returned to the field to warm up again, which is not an ideal way to prepare.
May 28, 2022, 3:09 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
Andrew Das
TV images still show huge patches of empty seats in the Liverpool end. Images from fans show closed gates.
May 28, 2022, 3:07 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
Tariq Panja
The game is still on hold.
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May 28, 2022, 2:56 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
Tariq Panja
The Stade de France, in a suburb outside Paris, was built for the 1998 World Cup and has hosted several big games since then, including the 2016 European Championship final. Fans have, though, previously complained about trouble gaining entry into the facility. The problems evoke memories of the chaotic scenes outside London’s Wembley Stadium ahead of last year’s European Championship final. That day, thousands of ticketless fans pushed their way inside, leading to dangerous conditions.
May 28, 2022, 2:54 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
Rory Smith
It is worth pointing out that the Stade de France is, like Wembley, a new stadium, and that therefore the issues outside should not be happening.
Image
Credit...Shaun Botterill/Getty Images
May 28, 2022, 2:52 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
Tariq Panja
Fans outside the stadium have been trapped for more than an hour in long lines with few entry gates apparently open. The situation outside the stadium also meant a bus carrying VIPs could not deliver them to the arena on time.
May 28, 2022, 2:50 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
Tariq Panja
The chaotic scenes outside the Stade de France, where many Liverpool supporters have found themselves stuck in bottleneck lines, has led to the final being delayed. An announcement was made inside the stadium, telling fans there would be an update in 15 minutes. There has been no modern precedent for a delay to a Champions League final despite issues with ticketing and entry affecting finals in years past.
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May 28, 2022, 2:48 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
The New York Times
## [A Champions League X-factor: the grass.](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/05/28/sports/champions-league-final#a-champions-league-x-factor-the-grass)
Image
A new grass field, grown in Spain, was laid at the Stade de France from Tuesday to early Thursday morning.Credit...Franck Fife/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
The field at the Stade de France is brand new, and that is not always a good thing.
Jürgen Klopp raised a few concerns about the playing surface on Friday. The grass was imported from Spain, and the process to remove the old turf and roll out the new took place over several days this week. The final pieces were laid early Thursday morning.
“That someone thought it was a good idea to bring the pitch the day before to the stadium is an interesting idea,” Klopp said, quickly noting he wasn’t “moaning” but that he had some issues.
“I don’t know how bad or good it is, I only saw it,” he said. “The refs were training on it and I saw the ball bouncing.
“Maybe it’s perfect, but it looks not perfect.”
Klopp said some of the seams where the pieces of turf meet were still visible, which holds the potential for danger — or even just ill-timed slips — as fans of certain New York-based soccer teams are well aware.
> I mean... [\#NYCFC](https://twitter.com/hashtag/NYCFC?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) [pic.twitter.com/zu51DV93sK](https://t.co/zu51DV93sK)
>
> — Paul Tenorio (@PaulTenorio) [April 6, 2019](https://twitter.com/PaulTenorio/status/1114586117595070469?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
Still, Klopp tried to move quickly to quash the fire he had just lit, saying, “I hope no one makes a story about ‘Klopp moaning about the pitch.’ I’m fine.
“This pitch is new since yesterday, which is not the best news. But it will be the same for both teams.”
Show more
May 28, 2022, 2:30 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
The New York Times
## [The parable of Luis Díaz.](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/05/28/sports/champions-league-final#the-parable-of-luis-diaz)
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Credit...Paul Ellis/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Rory Smith [sat down this week with Liverpool forward Luis Díaz](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/27/sports/soccer/luis-diaz-liverpool-champions-league.html), whose speed and skills and game-changing energy have made him a fan favorite on Merseyside even though he only joined the club in January.
What Rory found was a player proud of his heritage in an often-forgotten corner of Colombia; a star eager to clear up a host of fictions and exaggerations that have perpetuated in stories written by people who never bothered to talk to him; and, perhaps most important, a story about how the global search for talent misses more prospects than you think.
> The broad arc of his journey is familiar. Díaz had an underprivileged upbringing in Colombia’s most deprived area. He had to leave home as a teenager and travel for six hours, by bus, to train with a professional team. He was so slender at the time that John Jairo Diaz, one of his early coaches, nicknamed him “noodle.” His first club, believing he was suffering from malnutrition, placed him on a special diet to help him gain weight.
>
> Though its contours are, perhaps, a little more extreme, that story is not all that dissimilar to the experiences of many of Díaz’s peers, an overwhelming majority of whom faced hardship and made remarkable sacrifices on their way to the top.
>
> What makes Díaz’s story different, though, and what makes it especially significant, is where it started. Díaz does not know of any other Wayúu players. “Not at the moment, anyway, not ones who are professional,” he said.
>
> There is a reason for that. Scouts do not often make their way to La Guajira to look for players. Colombia’s clubs do not, as a rule, commit resources to finding future stars among the country’s Indigenous communities. It is that which lends Díaz’s story its power. It is not just a story about how he made it. It is also a story about why so many others do not.
[The Liverpool Star Who Came Out of Nowhere Luis Díaz has become a hero in only five months in England. But his story resonates not because he made it, but because so many others like him never get the chance. May 27, 2022](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/27/sports/soccer/luis-diaz-liverpool-champions-league.html)
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May 28, 2022, 2:20 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
The New York Times
## [There’s a lot of history to Saturday’s matchup.](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/05/28/sports/champions-league-final#theres-a-lot-of-history-to-saturdays-matchup)
Image
Liverpool and Real Madrid met in the 2018 final in Kyiv.Credit...Lluis Gene/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
You might be asking yourself: Haven’t we seen this movie before?
Well, yes, in a way. Both Liverpool and Real Madrid have been regulars in the latter stages of the Champions League, and regular visitors to the final, over the last decade.
Liverpool is playing for the trophy for the third time in five years, a stretch of some of the most thrilling — and most beautiful — soccer in its proud history. Real Madrid is in the final for the fifth time since 2014; in each of its previous four visits since then, its fans will quickly point out, it has left town with the trophy.
But despite their storied histories, both near-term and more ancient, Liverpool and Real Madrid have met in the final only twice.
Liverpool beat Real Madrid, 1-0, in 1981, when the tournament was still known as the European Cup, and when it was Liverpool that was in the midst of a string of recent titles.
Real Madrid won the rematch by 3-1 in 2018, continuing its own string of recent titles.
How long ago was that? Trent Alexander-Arnold was still [a fresh-faced teenager](https://www.thisisanfield.com/2018/06/trent-alexander-arnold-discusses-confidence-with-england-and-champions-league-final-heartbreak/) back then, and Gareth Bale was still a player Real Madrid liked to use from time to time.
That final still stings for Liverpool, which endured two horrible mistakes by goalkeeper Loris Karius that sealed its fate (and his at Anfield) and lost forward Mohamed Salah to a separated shoulder after an ugly tackle from Real Madrid supervillain/legend (descriptions may vary) Sergio Ramos in the first half.
Salah was forced from the game after the tackle, in which Ramos had hooked his arm as they fell. Ramos no longer plays for Madrid, but Salah does not appear to have forgotten.
“We have a score to settle,” he said this week.
Show more
May 28, 2022, 2:16 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
Tariq Panja
As fans continue to stream toward the Stade de France, it is looking uncomfortably crowded in some spots outside.
May 28, 2022, 2:11 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
Andrew Das
Today will be the first full-house Champions League final since Liverpool beat Tottenham in 2019 in Madrid, way back before none of us knew what the coronavirus was. Bayern Munich beat P.S.G. in an empty arena a year later, and Chelsea held off Manchester City in an all-Premier League final last year. <https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/05/29/sports/champions-league-final>
Image
Credit...David Ramos/Getty Images
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May 28, 2022, 2:04 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
[Rory Smith](https://www.nytimes.com/by/rory-smith)
## [Method vs. magic: How the final might go.](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/05/28/sports/champions-league-final#method-vs-magic-how-the-final-might-go)
Image
Credit...Paul Ellis, Gabriell Bouys/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Liverpool Manager Jürgen Klopp said it himself this week: If the Real Madrid of the last two minutes against Manchester City, the last 10 against Chelsea and the final half-hour against Paris St-Germain was Liverpool’s opponent in the Champions League final, there would be no point even staging the game. Just give Real Madrid the trophy and save everyone the bother.
TV AND STREAMING
Saturday’s final will be broadcast by CBS (English) and TUDN (Spanish) in the United States, and streamed on Paramount Plus. Kickoff is at 3 p.m. Eastern.
It is Klopp’s job, obviously, to look beyond those brief spells of invincibility. He is well aware that there is no stopping Real Madrid when it feels [history and destiny](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/04/sports/soccer/real-madrid-man-city-champions-league.html) on its shoulder; all he can do is try to stop that feeling arriving in the first place.
It is one of the curiosities of Real Madrid’s run to the final — not one that was widely anticipated — that Carlo Ancelotti’s team has probably only been the better team in one of its six knockout games thus far. Real was imperious in the first leg against Chelsea. That aside, it has had to weather fairly consistent storms.
That is no criticism. It is, instead, testament to its obduracy and its resilience and its talent, too, that it has endured, and done so in such dramatic fashion. Chelsea, Manchester City and P.S.G. could not disabuse Real Madrid of its abiding belief in its own agency; Ancelotti and his players have plenty of reason to be confident that Liverpool will go the same way.
One reading of this final is that Real Madrid’s luck has to run out at some point. Another is that perhaps it hasn’t been luck. Perhaps it is something else, something tangible, something that can be reproduced.
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May 28, 2022, 1:58 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
The New York Times
## [Have you signed up for our soccer newsletter? You should.](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/05/28/sports/champions-league-final#have-you-signed-up-for-our-soccer-newsletter-you-should)
Would you like a little more global soccer in your inbox every week? Europe and the rest of the world. World Cup. Women’s soccer. Signings. Sketchy business. Sign up for Rory Smith’s newsletter, and for The New York Times for that matter, at [nytimes.com/rory](https://www.nytimes.com/newsletters/rory-smith?smid=rd).
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May 28, 2022, 1:52 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
The New York Times
## [Liverpool’s lineup: No injuries, so no changes.](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/05/28/sports/champions-league-final#liverpools-lineup-no-injuries-so-no-changes)
Fabinho and Thiago were the only minor injury concerns for Liverpool, but each returned to training this week and both start against Real Madrid.
> Here's how we line up for the [\#UCLfinal](https://twitter.com/hashtag/UCLfinal?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
>
> 👊🔴
>
> — Liverpool FC (@LFC) [May 28, 2022](https://twitter.com/LFC/status/1530606089028378625?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
Klopp’s attack of Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mané and Luis Diaz is as aggressive as he can get, and a sign that Liverpool is ready to trade punches, and goals, as needed.
An early one (or two) could ease the pressure on a back line that never seems to get a day off. But keep an eye on Thiago early: His precision passing has been legendary lately, and if he’s fully fit, he could be a difference maker in springing the forwards running ahead of him.
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May 28, 2022, 1:48 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
The New York Times
## [Private parties act as a pregame warm-up.](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/05/28/sports/champions-league-final#private-parties-act-as-a-pregame-warm-up)
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Real Madrid fans at the Paris City Hall.Credit...Christophe Petit Tesson/EPA, via Shutterstock
Fans of Real Madrid and Liverpool appeared to be complying Saturday with the efforts of organizers eager to keep them out of trouble, and out of the center of Paris.
Separate fan zones were arranged for each club, and on Saturday afternoon they both filled with thousands of revelers. At Liverpool’s, the crowd was busy reprising old favorites and rewriting Beatles lyrics:
> I’m so glad… 🎶
>
> The atmosphere is building at our [\#UCLfinal](https://twitter.com/hashtag/UCLfinal?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) fan meeting point 😍 [pic.twitter.com/RZAZsCl5XU](https://t.co/RZAZsCl5XU)
>
> — Liverpool FC (@LFC) [May 28, 2022](https://twitter.com/LFC/status/1530563668836077568?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
At Real Madrid’s rally, which had more of a picnic vibe than the Liverpool concert, the club rolled out the Madrid legends Roberto Carlos and Iker Casillas, among others, as hype men:
> 🔊 [\#RMFans](https://twitter.com/hashtag/RMFans?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) 🔊[\#UCLfinal](https://twitter.com/hashtag/UCLfinal?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) \| [\#APorLa14](https://twitter.com/hashtag/APorLa14?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) [pic.twitter.com/mGtyo3l7FG](https://t.co/mGtyo3l7FG)
>
> — Real Madrid C.F. 🇬🇧🇺🇸 (@realmadriden) [May 28, 2022](https://twitter.com/realmadriden/status/1530527912881008640?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
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May 28, 2022, 1:39 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
Andrew Das
Liverpool looks like it could fill the Stade de France itself.
> Allez, allez, allez 🎶 [@LFC](https://twitter.com/LFC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) \| [\#UCLfinal](https://twitter.com/hashtag/UCLfinal?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) [pic.twitter.com/N0eIcvQhIG](https://t.co/N0eIcvQhIG)
>
> — UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) [May 28, 2022](https://twitter.com/ChampionsLeague/status/1530586024883134464?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
May 28, 2022, 1:37 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
The New York Times
## [Real Madrid’s lineup: No surprises.](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/05/28/sports/champions-league-final#real-madrids-lineup-no-surprises)
Real Madrid’s Carlo Ancelotti settled into his preferred lineup long ago, and he is not making any changes for the final. He was so certain, in fact, that he put it out more than two hours before kickoff.
> 📋✅ Our [\#UCLfinal](https://twitter.com/hashtag/UCLfinal?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) 𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗥𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗫𝗜! [\#APorLa14](https://twitter.com/hashtag/APorLa14?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) [pic.twitter.com/uj9fib8ZoZ](https://t.co/uj9fib8ZoZ)
>
> — Real Madrid C.F. 🇬🇧🇺🇸 (@realmadriden) [May 28, 2022](https://twitter.com/realmadriden/status/1530588747007463425?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
The midfield of Toni Kroos, Luka Modric and Casemiro may be a bit older than they were when they started the 2018 final against Liverpool, but would anyone bet against them?
Karim Benzema, who has played like the world’s best player in the Champions League knockout rounds, leads the attack, and Éder Militão and David Alaba once again anchor the defense.
Federico Valverde will start with Vinícius Junior flanking Benzema, but expect to see Rodrygo — the hero of the Manchester City comeback — at some point.
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May 28, 2022, 1:30 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
The New York Times
## [Man of the moment: Real Madrid’s Florentino Pérez.](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/05/28/sports/champions-league-final#man-of-the-moment-real-madrids-florentino-perez)
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Credit...David Fernandez/EPA, via Shutterstock
The Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez was always an imperfect spokesman for the Super League, even though he was largely responsible for its creation, and when it came and went last year in a 48-hour supernova of anger, betrayal and recriminations, much of the blame was laid at his feet.
He sought to recover by openly courting the French striker Kylian Mbappé for much of the next 12 months. When Mbappé decided last week to stay at Paris St.-Germain, it was another blow for Pérez.
Ordinarily, at a club as proud and demanding as Real Madrid, those twin embarrassments would be enough to spark some sense of mutiny. Pérez, though, remains as powerful, as unassailable as ever.
Rory Smith helpfully explains [why that is](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/27/sports/soccer/real-madrid-florentino-perez.html).
[At Real Madrid, a President Rides Out the Storm A year after the Super League debacle, Florentino Pérez is back in the Champions League final, having turned a club owned by its members into his personal kingdom. May 27, 2022](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/27/sports/soccer/real-madrid-florentino-perez.html)
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May 28, 2022, 1:20 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
[Tariq Panja](https://www.nytimes.com/by/tariq-panja)
## [Paris dispatch: Quiet on the streets, and peace at the dinner table.](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/05/28/sports/champions-league-final#paris-dispatch-quiet-on-the-streets-and-peace-at-the-dinner-table)
Image
Credit...Franck Fife/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
France is the center for world sports this weekend, with the Champions League final at the Stade de France in the northern suburb of Saint-Denis, [the French Open](https://www.nytimes.com/topic/subject/french-open) across town at Roland Garros and Formula One’s [Monaco Grand Prix](https://www.formula1.com/en/racing/2022/Monaco.html) on the south coast, if you prefer your sporting twists and turns in the literal sense.
The biggest pregame drama may have come at a UEFA dinner on Friday night. That was the first time that Real Madrid’s president, Florentino Pérez, and the UEFA president, Aleksander Ceferin, had met in person since a Pérez-led effort [to create a European Super League](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/22/sports/soccer/super-league-soccer.html) failed spectacularly just over a year ago.
Pérez, who is still suing UEFA over the Super League’s demise, and Ceferin, who called some of the plotters behind it “snakes” and “liars,” sat alongside one another at an official dinner at the Louvre on Friday night. They even posed for a photo:
> ✨ ⚽ A fantastic night in the city of light! It was our pleasure to host the finalists of the greatest football competition in the world at the [@ChampionsLeague](https://twitter.com/ChampionsLeague?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) celebration party in Paris.
>
> 🤝 [@LFC](https://twitter.com/LFC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) X [@realmadrid](https://twitter.com/realmadrid?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) X [\#UCLfinal](https://twitter.com/hashtag/UCLfinal?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) [pic.twitter.com/z3ouRW0odZ](https://t.co/z3ouRW0odZ)
>
> — UEFA (@UEFA) [May 28, 2022](https://twitter.com/UEFA/status/1530443846659756038?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
Addressing the gathering, Pérez reminded guests of his team’s pedigree when it comes to the European Cup. Real Madrid won the first competition, after all, in 1956 — the first of its record 13 titles — and the four that followed. It has now played a quarter of the all the finals that have been contested, in fact, including — after Saturday — five of the past nine.
The mood on the streets ahead of the dinner was considerably less tense. That might have been related to a warning issued to supporters of both teams that they risked fines of 135 euros (almost \$150) if they turned up wearing club colors in places like the Eiffel Tower or the Champs Élysées, the grand avenue that is typically flooded with visitors.
> [\#CLFINAL](https://twitter.com/hashtag/CLFINAL?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) [@LFCHELP](https://twitter.com/LFCHelp?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) [@SPIRITOFSHANKLY](https://twitter.com/spiritofshankly?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
> As of 15.00 on 26.05 until 18.00 on Sunday 29.05 it is prohibited to wear any football club colours in the area of the Champs Elysees. This includes scarves, hats, displaying banners etc. The police can issue a 135 Euro fine.
>
> — MerPol Liverpool FC (@MerPolLFC) [May 27, 2022](https://twitter.com/MerPolLFC/status/1530172508263047170?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
Instead, fans of the rival teams were guided to separate venues closer to the city limits. That could have been normal policing caution, fears of the coronavirus or the fact that France may not be entirely thrilled to have the game: It only got the hosting rights in February, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine made it untenable to go to the original host city, [St. Petersburg](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/25/sports/soccer/champions-league-final-paris-russia.html), and after Ceferin rushed to Paris to make a personal appeal to France’s president, Emmanuel Macron.
Still, the final — the first to be played in front of a full stadium since Liverpool last won the tournament in 2019 — did attract the well-heeled and well-connected, with UEFA’s luxury hotel a magnet for former players, high-ranking officials, politicians, agents and assorted extras.
And at least one business was booming:
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May 28, 2022, 1:16 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
The New York Times
## [Here are your TV and streaming options for the final.](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/05/28/sports/champions-league-final#here-are-your-tv-and-streaming-options-for-the-final)
Image
Credit...Molly Darlington/Reuters
Saturday’s final will be broadcast by CBS (English) and TUDN (Spanish) in the United States, and streamed on Paramount Plus. Kickoff is at 3 p.m. Eastern but coverage begins at 1:30 p.m.
Not in the United States? You can find your local viewing options — from Canal+ to Canal Dos to the wonderfully named Silknet and Wowow — on [this list of UEFA’s television partners](https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/news/0253-0d82037aaedd-f371c464f919-1000--where-to-watch-the-uefa-champions-league-tv-broadcast-partners-/).
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May 28, 2022, 1:16 p.m. ETMay 28, 2022
[Tariq Panja](https://www.nytimes.com/by/tariq-panja)
## [How the teams got here.](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/05/28/sports/champions-league-final#how-the-teams-got-here)
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Rodrygo and Vinícius Junior: makers of knockout-round miracles.Credit...Gabriel Bouys/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Neither Real Madrid nor Liverpool can be considered a surprise entry in today’s final, given their decorated pasts and their gilded histories in the competition. But their paths to Paris this year were, in fact, quite different.
Real Madrid faced all the so-called new money clubs in the knockout rounds, and in doing so came face to face with elimination multiple times. That meant digging deep when all seemed lost [against Paris St. Germain](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjC2ywJpulI&ab_channel=RealMadrid); mounting not one but two comebacks [against Chelsea](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/12/sports/soccer/chelsea-real-madrid-champions-league.html); and — in perhaps the most thrilling day of the tournament to date — scoring two goals after the clock hit 90 minutes to force extra time, and then scoring again there [to beat Manchester City](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/04/sports/soccer/real-madrid-man-city-champions-league.html).
By then, even some of its own fans had left the stadium, unable to face the prospect of watching the referee blow the final whistle on the home team. Instead, they missed one last moment of magic in a spring [filled with them](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/29/sports/soccer/champions-league-real-madrid-liverpool.html).
[Superclubs and Spring Nights The Champions League’s late-stage drama is a feature, not a bug. Let’s hope no one messes that up. April 29, 2022](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/29/sports/soccer/champions-league-real-madrid-liverpool.html)
Yet where Real Madrid’s route to Saint-Denis on Saturday was littered with dangerous obstacles, repeated jeopardy and momentary doubts, Liverpool’s path could not have been smoother.
A favorable knockout-round draw and a helpful upset — not to mention playing some of the best soccer in the club’s history — meant that its opponents were swatted aside relative ease. First [Inter Milan](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6wLgOyuVIw&ab_channel=CBSSportsGolazo). Then [Benfica](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBHWoXHGSMI). Even after it gave up a 2-0 advantage from the first leg of its semifinal inside the first half of the return game against Villarreal, Liverpool regrouped and, in the blink of an eye, stormed to victory [with three unanswered goals](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/03/sports/soccer/liverpool-beat-villarreal.html).
Liverpool has, of course, be in this spot before: It lost to Real Madrid in the 2018 final. But it got up, sobered up ([in Jürgen Klopp’s case](https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/may/27/a-punk-singer-and-fake-european-cup-how-klopp-got-liverpool-back-on-track) at least), dusted itself off and returned the next year, winning the title — in Madrid — against Tottenham.
“Some of their players can win it for a fifth time and the manager can win it for the fourth time.” Klopp said of his counterpart Carlo Ancelotti. “We can’t buy that experience, but we’re here for the third time in five years — that’s special.”
Image
"If we are on the top of our game we are difficult to play, really difficult to play," Liverpool's Jürgen Klopp said. "That is my only concern at the moment."Credit...Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters
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See more on: [Real Madrid](https://www.nytimes.com/topic/organization/real-madrid), [Liverpool (Soccer Team)](https://www.nytimes.com/topic/liverpool-soccer-team)
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