ATLETICO Madrid gave their city rivals a huge early scare, but Real Madrid won 4-2 on aggregate and will face Juventus in the Cham- pions League Final on June 3.
Zinedine Zidane’s side felt they had one foot in the Final in Cardiff after winning the first leg 3-0, but from the very start of this final Champions League match at the Es- tadio Vicente Calderon, Atleti were fired up. It soon paid off, as within 16 minutes they had wiped out two of those three goals from the aggregate score thanks to a Saul Niguez header from a corner and
Antoine Griezmann’s penalty. It wasn’t a great spot- kick and Keylor Navas got a hand to it, but not enough to keep the ball out. Griezmann fa- mously missed a penalty against Real Madrid in last year’s Final, so the pressure was immense after Raphael Varane tripped Fernando Tores.
However, just as they were approaching half-time, Real Madrid got one back and cru- cially it was an away goal. Karim Benzema somehow squirmed away from three play- ers down the touchline and pulled back for Toni Kroos, forcing a great Jan Oblak save, but Isco tapped in the rebound. That meant Real Ma- drid set a new record of scoring in 61 consecu- tive matches, beating Bayern Munich’s 60 from 2013-14.
Atletico needed five goals to go through and almost got one on 66 minutes, but Key- lor Navas performed a stunning double save on Yannick Carrasco and then Kevin Gameiro follow-up header.