PARIS (AP) – Real Madrid became European champions for the 14th time on Saturday after beating Liverpool 1-0 in a Champions League final that began 37 minutes late on Saturday due to problems disturbing public outside the Stade de France.
Brazilian winger Vinicius Junior fired a shot from distance in the 59th minute with a Federico Valverde push into the net, securing a victory that gave Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti a fourth European Cup title record.
While Madrid completed a Champions League-La Liga double, Liverpool ended a promising season – a week ago, a quadruple of unprecedented major trophies was played – with the two national cups in England.
The English team could not beat the Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, who deflected Sadio Mané’s shot in the first half on the post and made an even better stop to deflect Mohamed Salah’s effort in the 81st minute.
Madrid has consolidated its status as king of European football, as the Spanish giant has twice as many European cups as number 2 on the list, AC Milan. Liverpool were six.
However, pre-match crowding problems marred this final and will surely be the focus of an investigation by UEFA and the authorities in the coming days.
With 45 minutes to go, there were still long queues of Liverpool fans waiting to be allowed into the stadium, and there were sporadic cases of fans breaking security and sprinting into the lobby.
The Associated Press saw two fans, one wearing Liverpool suits, wrestling on the ground by administrators and packing through the gates, while others managed to get into the arena.
The situation began to get out of hand when riot police fired tear gas at Liverpool fans on the lines, while some fans were seen climbing the fences. Officers with batons and riot shields ran from door to door to prevent pockets of fans from being forced into the stadium without showing tickets.
About 15 minutes before the scheduled start of 9pm local time (7pm GMT), an announcement was made that there would be a delay, blaming the late arrival of fans at the stadium. He was greeted with mockery inside the stadium, as those fans had already endured long queues.
The scenes were reminiscent of chaos outside Wembley Stadium before the final of last year’s European Championship between England and Italy.