Real Madrid is crowned champion and secures its fifteenth Champions League trophy

(AFP) Real Madrid, the eternal European champion, won the tournament for the fifteenth time in which it built its legacy, beating Borussia Dortmund 2-0 this Saturday in the final at Wembley.

Dani Carvajal opened the scoring with a header from a corner kick in the 74th minute, and the sentence was signed by his Brazilian teammate Vinicius, with a cross-shot in the area in the 83rd minute.

The last time Real Madrid lost a tournament final was way back in 1981, and they refused to break that streak, even though Dortmund made them suffer a lot in various phases of the match.

The last nine Champions League finals it has reached have ended up opting for the 'merengue' side. The team thus reconquers its favorite tournament after ceding the throne to Manchester City last year.

After achieving its 36th title in the Spanish League this year, this Champions crowns the season and offers a dream farewell to Toni Kroos, who played his last game in club football since he will retire as a soccer player after the Euro Cup with Germany.

Both Kroos and his teammates Luka Modric, Dani Carvajal and Nacho Fernández made history by winning a sixth Champions League and tying the record held by Paco Gento, one of the great myths of Real Madrid.

For Borussia Dortmund, the night was cruel. They battled, stood up and at times were superior to the Spanish champion, but the fifth-placed team in the Bundesliga ended up defeated at Wembley. At the same venue, they had been defeated in their previous tournament final against Bayern Munich in 2013.

They only managed to win the Champions League once, the first time in a decisive duel in 1997.

Courtois and the stick, saviors

The match began with the surprise of several spectators jumping onto the grass and interrupting the duel for a couple of minutes. It continued with Dortmund being infected by the enthusiasm of the noisy yellow fans.

The first half was a catalog of scares for the Spanish, with Dortmund reaching for the goal repeatedly.

The first very clear one came from Karim Adeyemi, whose face-to-face match against Thibaut Courtois got complicated and was left with little angle (21).

Two minutes later, Füllkrug hit the post with a very dangerous cross-shot in the area.

Adeyemi tried again without success in the 29th minute, with a left foot shot that Courtois blocked in a new worthy intervention. Füllkrug headed the rebound, but it was too forced.

Marcel Sabitzer, in the 40th minute, tested the reflexes of the Belgian goalkeeper with a shot from outside the area, while the offensive balance for Real Madrid was limited to two attempts that were too high, without much gunpowder, by Fede Valverde and Vinicius in the start of the crash.

The giant wakes up

In the second half, Real Madrid seemed to wake up.

Kroos sent a first foul call in the 49th minute, and in the 50th, Carvajal, with a header, finished slightly high.

It was much more difficult for Dortmund and Courtois. A real wall for the yellows in the match thwarted the most dangerous one, a header from Füllkrug in the 63rd minute.

But Real Madrid were much better than in their invisible first half.

Jude Bellingham almost managed to head the ball into the goal in the 68th minute. A harbinger of what was about to happen: Carvajal finished a corner kick taken by Kroos directly into the net.

"We came out of the first half alive, knowing we would have our moment, and here it is. It will be true that this club knows how to suffer," celebrated the Spanish full-back at the end of the match.

With Dortmund in disarray, chances followed one another in the goal of a busy Gregor Kobel until Vinicius, the author of the final goal of the 'Decimocuarta' two years ago, gave the sentence: assisted by Bellingham, the Brazilian player sent a cross-shot into the net in the area (83).

The party was already white. Kroos was applauded when he was substituted in the final stretch.

Dortmund's last bullet came in the form of a disallowed goal against Füllkrug in the 87th minute, which prevented them from getting back into the game.

Real Madrid was already beginning to think about its celebrations in the Spanish capital, which may be accompanied in the coming days by the expected announcement of the signing of Kylian Mbappé.