Real Madrid‘s president, Florentino Perez, for his part, offered words of encouragement for his club’s local rival, which came tantalisingly close to winning its first Champions League title two years ago before Ramos knotted the final at 1-1 with a goal three minutes into injury time in the second half.
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Simeone hinted after the penalties loss in Milan that he would consider his future at Atleti, but Tiago made it clear he did not envisage the Coach leaving any time soon as Diego Godin did his best to remain upbeat.
Already one of the greatest players in the history of football, it turns out Zinedine Zidane makes the right moves on the touchline, too.
The original 1956 winners of the cup took the Champions League cup for the 11th time.
Real Madrid captured an unprecedented 11th Champions League title with a 5-3 victory on penalties over cross-town rivals Atletico Madrid, which had rallied to tie 1-1 in the regulation 90 minutes of play.
The Catalans won the treble in the previous campaign, lifting the Copa del Rey, La Liga and the European crown, but they were one short this time around.
If Simeone feels he might have reached the end of the road, Real Madrid coach, Zinedine Zidane, spoke like a man only just beginning. The replays showed that Ramos could well have been offside, although not by much, and still the goal stood.
“With Rafael we had some good times, but when Zizou came the dressing room was more unified”, added Ramos. “A fantastic night for us”.
“What really hurts me is to see the hurt of the people who’ve paid to come here – I feel a bit responsible that I wasn’t able to give them what they wanted. When you achieve what we’ve achieved all season it means you’ve done well, that the messages have got through, that the players have followed me, that I’ve followed them and that’s how we’ve managed to win this Champions League”. “The effort was really tremendous”.
They showed their intentions with some heavy tackles early on but their plan threatened to unravel when a heavy challenge by Gabi led to a free kick which was floated in by Toni Kroos and headed on by Gareth Bale for Ramos to bundle home.
Cristiano Ronaldo has insisted he remains at the peak of his powers and claimed that jealousy is the only reason anyone would not be happy for his third Champions League triumph.
That could have been the turning point, but instead Atletico ran out of steam. Neither side looked like breaking the deadlock in extra-time.
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Real won the toss for the penalties and chose the end where their fans were based. His imprint on finals is not quite yet that of an Alfredo Di Stefano, but he, a central defender, has now scored as many goals in winning finals of the European Cup as the legendary striker and skipper, Raul.
