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Goals from Mohamed Salah and substitute Divock Origi gave Liverpool their sixth Champions League title last night as they beat Premier League rivals Tottenham Hotspur 2-0.
A capacity crowd of 68 000 in the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium in Madrid saw the game begin at a pulsating pace as Liverpool were awarded a penalty within 30 seconds when Slovenian referee Damir Skomina pointed to the spot after Moussa Sissoko was adjudged to have handled the ball off an attempted cross by Sadio Mané.
After a brief pause to allow the incident to be examined by the video assistant referee, Salah, who last year had to be substituted due to an injury in the first half as Liverpool were beaten in the final by Real Madrid, made no mistake, slamming the ball down the centre of the goal – giving the diving Hugo Lloris no chance.
Spurs, who were playing in their first Champions League final, soon recovered from the early shock and pushed forward in search of an equaliser.
South Korean Son Heung-min looked like he was on fire going forward for Spurs, but was guilty of ball-holding when it would have been better to lay off.
The London side enjoyed most of the possession in the first half, but failed to create any real chances. Instead, Liverpool looked dangerous when they went forward and Trent Alexander-Arnold forced Lloris to make a fine save midway through the half.
The second half began very much as the first had ended, with Spurs throwing men forward without looking dangerous. Surprisingly, Spurs’ coach Mauricio Pochettino waited until the 66th minute to introduce hat-trick hero Lucas Moura.
The Brazilian scored three goals in Spurs’ 3-2 victory at Ajax that saw them qualify for last night’s final, but he failed to find the net this time around.
James Milner came close to putting his side two up after Mané covered nearly half the field with the ball at his feet before finding Salah, who played the ball back to Milner, whose shot went just wide of the upright.
A few minutes later, Dele Alli tried an outrageous chip over Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson, but the Brazilian had no problems in comfortably holding on to the ball.
As the clock ran down, Liverpool played deep in their own half, allowing Spurs most of the pitch, but prevented them from coming into their area.
Alisson was called on to save from a Son long-range shot from outside the area with 10 minutes to go and the keeper then did well shortly afterwards by palming away Christian Eriksen’s free kick for a corner.
Pochettino then brought on Spanish striker Fernando Llorente for the last roll of the dice, but Origi’s late goal put the match beyond them.
The Belgian, who came on for Roberto Firmini in the 58th minute, beat Lloris with a well-taken shot low into the corner after Spurs failed to clear a Milner corner.
Being two goals down, there was no way back for Spurs, although they tried gamely and Alisson was by far the busier of the two goalkeepers throughout the match.
The victory sees Liverpool coach Jürgen Klopp avoid the unwanted record of joining Marcello Lippi with the most number of defeats in a Champions League final.
Going into last night’s match, the German had lost with Borussia Dortmund (2013) and with Liverpool (last year).
