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5. Can anyone stop Real Madrid and their phenomenal manager of Zinedine Zidane?
61 games. Bayern Munich held the record for scoring in the most number of consecutive games at 61 (all competitions), something they set during a couple of seasons spread across March 2013 to April 2014. Zinedine Zidane’s men have just equaled it.
It may the most irrelevant stat from the night – after all, Zizou did manage to guide his team to the Champions League semifinal for the second year running – but there are few more illuminating. Real Madrid are an unstoppable force moving forward and it’s been the key to their monumental success this season... I’ve been maintaining this for some time now, but Zidane’s greatest attribute was being in possession of the most incredible “will-to-win” and he has successfully instilled the same into his team. Nothing exemplified that, and a team spirit that’s always been all too rare for Madrid, more than Cristiano Ronaldo’s decision to take a quick throw and release Benzema down the line to do his thing. As big as the individual, there is no one bigger than the team. If Zidane has taught his charges that finally, it may yet be his greatest ever achievement.
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Zizou had never lost to Atleti before today – not as a player nor as a coach – but he knows better than most that a battle lost while winning the war is a small price to pay. His unorthodox formation worked after his players recovered from that full-on assault of the first twenty minutes – and his philosophy, or lack thereof, has made his team a hard team to pin down.
Madrid have had their share of problems but Ramos’ best defensive display for quite sometime, Benzema’s decision to pay his manager’s faith back and a superb firefighting effort from the entire team made sure that yesterday night would merely add to the legend of Zinedine Zidane.
The question to be answered is... can anyone stop Real Madrid now? Well, of anyone can do it, it’s the great defence of Juventus, eh? What an epic final we are set up for.
