Champions League final 2022: Review of Liverpool and Real Madrid




Champions League final 2022: Review of Liverpool and Real Madrid






Real Madrid were declared the champions of the 2022 Champions League after their 1-0 win against Liverpool. The cup is the Spanish football club’s 14 th Champions league title. Their win against Liverpool was after the young-talented striker Vinicius Jr scored a wonderful goal in the second half. Although their rivals Liverpool dominated most of the ball possession in the entire game, Real Madrid utilized every chance they had and finally earned their winning goal. Read on to learn more about the 2022 Champions League final between Real Madrid and Liverpool.

The Match Begins


The match started with Liverpool dominating most of the ball possession, evidenced by the center midfielder Ibrahima Konate's perfect marking of his target man Vinicius Jr in the first half. The first goal opportunity came from a faint shot by Liverpool’s striker Mo Salah, which was perfectly saved by Real Madrid’s goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois. A minute later Courtois made another brilliant save by denying the Egyptian another goal.

The Real Madrid’s goalkeeper was the main theme of the match after making a number of couple saves to deny the Liverpool’s strikers. One notable save by the goalkeeper during the opening stages was a finger-tip stop to divert Sadio Mane’s brilliant strike onto the inside of the goal post. 34 minutes into the first half, the stats read Liverpool made 8 shots on goal with 5 of them being on target, while the competitors made no shots at goal.

Before Halftime


In the first quarter of the game, Liverpool maintained a strong and controlled ball possession, constantly putting pressure on the Real Madrid goalkeeper. Courtois kept on frustrating the Liverpool forwards by denying them any chance at goal. Moments later into the first Real Madrid’s star striker and their captain, Karim Benzema opened the score line, but it was flagged offside by the linesman.

The offside goal by Benzema was as a result of a miscommunication between the red’s Konate and Allison only for the Video Assistant Referee to rule the goal offside after a long consultation with the match referees. According to VAR and the match’s referee Peter Walton, Benzema’s goal was flagged offside as Fabinho unintentionally kicked the ball towards Benzema’s path while he was standing on an offside position. First half ended 0-0.

Liverpool Falls Behind


As the match progressed, Liverpool seemed most likely to score, but failed to get past the Belgian goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois. The first goal of the match came after Real Madrid’s midfielder Federico Valverde sprinted to the right wing before sending a low cross towards Liverpool’s back post to find Vinicius Jr was scored into an empty net. After the goal, the match took a different turn and now the Spanish team Real Madrid started dominating most of the ball’s possession.

Courtois continued to be the talk of the evening after making a brilliant save to stop Mo Salah’s curling shot towards goal. Real Madrid’s goalkeeper made another spectacular save by stopping Diego Jota’s strong header towards goal.

Conclusion


The 2022 Champions League final ended 1-0, with Real Madrid securing their 14 th cup title in the competition thanks to a goal by Vinicius Jr. Thibaut Courtois was named as the Man of the Match after making a total of nine saves in the entire match.