Champions League Final: Real Madrid beats Liverpool 3-1, Gareth Bale scores spectacular goal
Updated
Welshman Gareth Bale scored twice, including a spectacular overhead strike within three minutes of coming on as a substitute, as Spanish giants Real Madrid became the first team to win three successive European championship finals in the Champions League era, with a 3-1 defeat of Liverpool in Kiev.
Bale directed a looping overhead scissor-kick high into the Liverpool goal in the 64th minute after Liverpool's Sadio Mane pounced from close range in the 55th minute to equalise an earlier Karim Benzema goal.
Liverpool fans will be ruing the performance of German goalkeeper Loris Karius, who made two crucial blunders which led to goals, including Bale's second and Benzema's opener.
The match had implications for the upcoming World Cup in Russia, with Liverpool's Egyptian star forward Mohamed Salah leaving the game in tears with a shoulder injury just seven minutes before Real lost Spanish right-back Dani Carvajal to injury.
Substitute Bale, who also scored in Real's 2014 final win over Atletico Madrid, had only been on the pitch for three minutes when he rose to meet Marcelo's cross in the air from outside the box, sending it flying into the net to restore Real's lead at the NSC Olympic Stadium.
French forward Karim Benzema had put Madrid ahead in the 51st minute by sticking out a leg as Liverpool's German keeper Karius attempted to throw the ball to a team mate, sending it trickling over the line, but Sadio Mane levelled from close range for Juergen Klopp's side.
Bale then sealed Madrid's record-extending 13th European Cup win and piled more misery on Karius with a long-range strike in the 83rd minute which went straight through the hands of the hapless goalkeeper.
It was a night which confirmed Real's ability to superbly manage the biggest of games and highlighted Liverpool's continued problems with the goalkeeping position.
Bale, who has not been first-choice at Real this season after injury and whose future has been the subject of much speculation, was named man of the match while 24-year-old Karius ended the night in tears looking utterly distraught.
Real become the first side since Bayern Munich in 1976 to win the trophy three years in a row and Zinedine Zidane is the first coach to win three back-to-back titles.
For Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp this was a sixth successive loss in a final, including a 2013 Champions League loss to Bayern Munich while Borussia Dortmund coach.
Reuters/ABC
Topics: soccer, soccer-world-cup, ukraine
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