Madrid beat Liverpool to complete hat-trick
Real Madrid completed their third straight UEFA Champions League triumph with a 3-1 defeat of Liverpool in Kyiv. Gareth Bale scored twice off the bench as Real Madrid beat Liverpool 3-1 in Kyiv to become European champions for the 13th time. Bale's first was an 'I-was-there' goal, one to rival Zinédine Zidane, Mario Mandžukić and any other you care to name as the best in final history. Marcelo's cross from the left looked harmless enough, but the Welshman, 20 metres out, somehow contorted his body to hook the ball over his head with enough power that it fizzed past Loris Karius. Quite the contrast to Madrid's opener on 51 minutes, when Karius attempted to roll the ball out to a team-mate only for Benzema to stick out a hopeful leg which turned out to be a goalscoring interception. Isco had been denied by the crossbar shortly prior to that, but Liverpool – creaking ever since the talismanic Mohamed Salah had been forced off with a shoulder problem in t...
