Real Madrid Final – Dortmund – Superior strengths and legacy: Why Real never lose their finals

Football is a matter of numbers, stars, dynamics, statistics. A matter of tactics, choice of men, balance of power. And then, of everything that cannot be explained or quantified. Superior forces that make legends and destinies. In the Champions League, Real Madrid is unlike any other club, it’s as if this competition had been tailor-made for them. From its creation until today, the stories of the C1 and the Merengue club are closely linked and when everything is at stake, the coin always falls on the same side.

It’s been 43 years since Real Madrid last lost a Champions League final. In the meantime, he scored a perfect eight out of eight despite not always favorable scenarios. This shows the task that awaits Borussia Dortmund this Saturday: to achieve the impossible. Because the Champions League is a competition which brings together (so far) 32 teams and, in the end, it is Real who wins. Why him ? Why does the Spanish club always achieve their goals in the final? Last year, Dani Carvajal, a soldier with five European coronations, found rather clear explanations.

“I think the key lies more in what our opponents feel than what we feel,” he testified. “We know we are going to do it. Even if we are very bad and it is not our day, we know full well that we will have our chances and that, if we continue to insist, we will be rewarded. The rival is influenced, he knows that he has Real Madrid in front of him, and Real Madrid does not lose the finals. A sort of self-persuasion that is passed down from generation to generation, the club with 14 Champions Leagues is sure of its destiny. A superpower that transcends the men in white as much as it petrifies the adversary.

This could explain the equalization of Sergio Ramos in the 90th + 3 minutes in 2014 when the final escaped his team or two years later, still against Atlético de Madrid and still in the final, the missed penalty of Antoine Griezmann so skilled in the exercise. Eventually, it is no longer a coincidence but a trademark. A culture itself. “The players who arrive at Real Madrid know that its members and followers consider this competition as something that belongs to themexplains The Athletic Roman Calderon, former president of Real Madrid. The fact that our club was one of the founders and that it won the first five trophies after its creation is not unrelated to this situation.“

Basically, in Madrid more than elsewhere, no matter the men, the strength of the jersey wins everything. The departure of Karim Benzema and the absence of a very high-level center forward do not prevent him from being there on Saturday. We believed this generation incapable of going to the top without Cristiano Ronaldo, it succeeded in 2022. That year, again, Liverpool dominated the Madrilenians at the Stade de France but the scenario never escaped Vinicius, only scorer in the final, and his teammates. “In Paris, we knew what we had to do at every moment, that Liverpool were going to leave spaces and that is the key: to manage the tempo of the match correctly to win the cup.”

It must be said that in addition to the legacy passed down by decades of success, Real today counts on men experienced in final victory, who know the path to success. At their head, Carlo Ancelotti, six times winner of the trophy as player and coach (a record), radiates absolute serenity, having enjoyed success in the competition in each of the last five decades… No, definitely, good luck to Borussia…