MADRID — The twist, in the end, was that there was no twist. A Champions League season that will be remembered for its taste for the improbable, its tendency toward the unthinkable and its disregard for logic and reason, had no drama left to give. Liverpool scored early, scored late, stifled Tottenham in between, and won, 2-0, to become the champion of Europe for a sixth time.
There is a myth in sports that nobody remembers who finished second. It is not true. Spurs fans will remember all that their team has done this season for years, for decades: the chaos against Manchester City, the comeback against Ajax, that moment of pure disbelieving silence after Lucas Moura had carried the team to the Champions League final. The teams Tottenham beat along the way, and those who watched, will remember, too. Defeat may leave a bitter taste, but in time even that may fade. The journey matters, too, not only the destination.
What few remember, though, is the manner of victory. It did not matter one bit to those Liverpool fans, pouring forward, tumbling over each other, desperate to be as close to the players who had brought them to the pinnacle of Europe as possible, that their team had struggled to find any rhythm at all; that Liverpool had benefited from a questionable penalty, and then, for long periods, ridden its luck; that it had been reliant, as the nerves started to fray, on Alisson Becker, its goalkeeper, for deliverance.
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In a week, in two, in a few hours even, nobody will remember the details of the final. What they will remember are the feelings: the jubilation of Mohamed Salah’s penalty, awarded after just 25 seconds; of Divock Origi’s clinching goal, scored after 87 minutes; of the bliss and the relief of the final whistle.
They will remember the sight of Trent Alexander-Arnold, one of their own, bouncing in front of the massed ranks of red, all by himself, a moment of rapture for a 20-year-old from Liverpool, a boyhood fan, a fairytale made flesh. All they will remember is that, in Madrid, Liverpool won the European Cup, the trophy that holds such a special place in the club’s heart.
