Real Madrid Makes Champions League History

Until now, no team has ever won the Champions League back-to-back.

So at least Real Madrid had an immedite challenge to address.

The finale's stage was set as Italian giants Juventus were steeled for a close encounter.

But what they got was -- almost predictably -- an encounter of another kind.

That's one way of summing up Real Madrid's 4-1 smashihng of Juve.

Until this game, Le Zebre had earned a reputation for conceding the fewest goals this season. Real, on the other hand, are a scoring machine.

It only took 20 minutes to confirm it, with who else but Cristiano Ronaldo to do the honors:

The big stage is where he thrives the most.

Juve came up with a rather strong reply seven minutes later, when Mario Mandzukic lit it up with a spectacular overhead kick:

Takes some guts to pull that one off in a match like this.

OK, maybe not that much, but still.

 

So much for dialing it down.

Anyway, Casemiro fired Los Blancos -- who were more like Los Azules in this one -- back into a lead they wouldn't surrender with an amazing deflected shot:

How unlucky are Juventus?

Well, their defense fumbled, bumbled, and stumbled yet again, which gave an opening to Ronaldo yet again:

That's one top-class striker.

Finally, icing was put on the proverbial cake by Marco Asensio:

Up next for Real: the march to a threepeat.