Barcelona were crowned kings of Europe for the fifth time after beating Juventus 3-1 in a pulsating UEFA Champions League final at the Olympiastadion in Berlin on Saturday, capping their magnificent season with a title treble.
The Spanish side lived up to their tag as favorites and added the European Cup to their La Liga and Copa del Rey triumphs as coach Luis Enrique celebrated his first season in memorable fashion.
Goals from Croatian Ivan Rakitic in the fourth minute, Uruguayan Luis Suarez in the 68th and Brazilian Neymar with the last kick of the game sealed Barca’s second treble, matching their 2008-2009 feat.
Photo: EPA
“It’s incredible, a dream, something unique,” Suarez told reporters. “To win these competitions you have to suffer, if not it’s not worth it, and today we had to suffer to win the match.”
Barca’s South American trio of Suarez, Neymar and Lionel Messi, known collectively as “MSN,” showed spectacular form all season and Saturday’s goals took their tally to an amazing 122 in all competitions as the game proved the perfect antidote for the corruption scandal engulfing soccer’s world governing body FIFA.
Juve, though, became the first team in the history of the competition to get beaten in six finals and the Italian giants have now lost their past four.
Photo: AFP
“I would like to thank the team for the wonderful season they have had,” said Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri, who landed the domestic double in his first season in charge. “We played a great game tonight... unfortunately, when you play against great players you think you have things under control, but then they get you.”
Barcelona shrugged off a nervous start by scoring a sublime fourth-minute goal.
All 10 outfield players touched the ball in a 16-pass move that ended when Neymar fed Andres Iniesta and he picked out Rakitic to slot the fourth-fastest goal in a European Cup final.
Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, who won the World Cup with Italy at the Olympiastadion in 2006, but is still waiting to capture his first European crown, denied Barca a second goal in the 13th minute with a superb one-handed save, keeping out a Dani Alves shot.
Alvaro Morata twice went close for the Italian side, but Barca’s pressure in the first half was relentless and Suarez twice almost netted.
The 37-year-old Buffon again came to the rescue three minutes after the restart and then Juve struck against the run of play, with former Real Madrid striker Morata tapping the ball in after goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen had saved from Carlos Tevez.
The Italians looked to be taking control of the game, but their joy was short-lived. Argentine Messi took matters into his own hands, charging past three defenders and unleashing a low drive that Buffon could only parry to Suarez.
It was the most crucial goal of the 28-year-old Uruguayan’s career and it came a year after he was branded a villain for biting Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini, who missed Saturday’s final through injury, at the FIFA World Cup finals in Brazil.
Neymar had a goal disallowed after his header bounced off his own hand to deceive the diving Buffon, much to the forward’s frustration.
Juve, who had an average age of 30 and were the second-oldest team to play in a Champions League final, fought bravely, but ran out of steam.
Brazilian Neymar netted deep into stoppage-time to provide a fitting farewell for midfielder Xavi, who is leaving Barcelona after collecting 25 trophies in more than two decades with the club he joined at the age of 11.
Along with teammates Iniesta, Messi and Gerard Pique, Xavi also equaled former Netherlands midfielder Clarence Seedorf’s record of four UEFA Champions League triumphs.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite