CL final: Real Madrid sacrificed the Primera Liga for a greater prize

As we all well know now, this is no ordinary Champions League final. The very fact that Real Madrid are competing for a 10th European crown shows just how grand a club they are. To the capital side, in terms of priorities assigned to silverware, the league will always finish in consolatory second place. To put their quest in perspective, AC Milan have seven European Cups to their name, Bayern Munich and Liverpool both have five, Barcelona and Ajax have four apiece and Manchester United and Inter Milan have two each to their name. [caption id=“attachment_1540725” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Real Madrid are one win away from fulfilling what has become a 12-year quest. AP[/caption] Madrid have been and always will be favourites for La Liga, but this time around coach Carlo Ancelotti has adopted a scorched-earth policy of purposely resting his big-name players for the last few games of the league so that they will be fresh for the Champions League final at the Stadium of Light in Lisbon today. Lisbon is a city Cristiano Ronaldo knows only two well, having spent his formative years with Sporting before making a name for himself at Old Trafford. Ronaldo was out injured for the Liga’s run in but a footballer as passionate as him would’ve been surely willing to play through the pain in order to win Madrid yet another league title. Ditto Gareth Bale, who would’ve been eager to capture his second piece of silverware, but was intentionally left out of Madrid’s last few league games. Ancelotti knew that winning another league title would pale in comparison to being the coach that wins Real Madrid that much sought-after, fabled La Decima, a title madridistas have been fervently chanting ever since Zinedine Zidane’s magical volley at Hampden Park in 2002. He also knew that his players would’ve hated losing out on the league title to their arch-rivals Atletico. That this is the first Champions League final to be contested between two teams from the same city for the first time in the competition’s history would make the final a much more memorable event. To the likes of Ronaldo, Bale, Iker Casillas and Karim Benzema, May 24th is also about evening the odds against Atleti. For Madrid, Saturday night at the Estadio da Luz in Lisbon is not just about La Decima. It’s also showing Atletico that despite los Colchoneros winning the league, Real are still top dogs. There is no better way to do that then beating your old enemy on Europe’s grandest stage. It is an evening that Madrid have spent years preparing for. Their Champions League final is no flash in the pan. The club have reached the semi-finals of previous three editions and are fully deserving of their place in the final. Madrid have learned from missing out on the final, forced to partake of it from the television screen while they watch other clubs lift the coveted cup. Borussia Dortmund were the surprise package last year, and Madrid underestimated them at their own expense. The devastating pace of Marco Reus and the lethal finishing of Robert Lewandowski at the Westfalenstadion left them trying to claw back a three-goal lead in the Spanish capital, something that was going to be a big ask for even a team as talented as Madrid. The last time Madrid met Bayern was in the semi-finals of the 2011-12 edition of the competition. Locked 3-3 on aggregate, Madrid faced the agony of not contesting the final in Bayern’s own backyard after losing the fickle lottery of the penalty shootout. This time around, Ancelotti had decided to not let his team gamble on what the fates held in store. Ancelotti is one of football’s most experienced coaches. He knew that Bayern had two weaknesses that his team could exploit. The Bavarian giants are not used to seeing goals scored against them early on in games, and that could disrupt their game plan in such a high-voltage situation. Secondly, like most teams managed by Pep Guardiola, the German outfit display a lack of tactical nous when it comes to set pieces, despite having at his disposal the 6’2” Dante, 6’3” Holger Badstuber, 6’4” Jerome Boateng and the 6’6” Daniel van Buyten. Ancelotti decided to exploit this weakness in Munich. Few are the teams that dare to challenge Bayern Munich, who would’ve naturally slackened mentally, given that they’d already secured the Bundesliga even before they’d faced Manchester United at Old Trafford. The Bavarians, so used to being supremely dominant in games, were bewildered by Madrid’s lethal attacks and were punished for the manner in which they approached it. In inflicting such a humiliating defeat on the reigning European champions, Ancelotti was sending his fellow finalists a message: those who would underestimate Los Blancos the way Bayern had would suffer the same fate. In reaching the Champions League final, the circle of competition that began when Barcelona beat Madrid 2-0 at the Santiago Bernabeu en route to beating Manchester United 3-1. However, Barcelona’s fall from grace has been quick this season, both on and off the pitch. Madrid have re-established their dominance by beating them in the King’s Cup final and have gone one step further by making it to the Portuguese capital while Barcelona have ended a season empty-handed, a rare occurrence in Catalonia. But La Decima offers as much to Ancelotti as it does to Madrid. He has already proved his quality at the highest level and will only enhance is value and ability as a coach by becoming the man that led Madrid to their tenth Champions League crown, writing his name in the very prestigious annals of history at the Bernabeu.