The 2017-2018 Champions League was the 63rd season of Europe’s premier club football tournament. The final was played between Real Madrid and Liverpool, with Real winning it 3-1.
Spanish club Real were placed in a tough Group H along with Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur, Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund and Cyprus APOEL. Real finished runners-up in their group, three points behind Spurs in the points table.
That meant a Round of 16 clash with France’s Paris Saint Germain and they eased through it with a 5-2 aggregate victory over two legs. The quarter-final against Italian side Juventus was more hard fought, and Real managed to scrape through, 4-3 on aggregate.
The semi-final against Germany’s Bayern Munich also went on similar lines, and Real once again progressed with a 4-3 aggregate.
In the final against Liverpool, Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema put them ahead in the 51st minute, only for Liverpool’s Sadio Mane to equalise just four minutes later. Real’s Gareth Bale, who came on as a substitute in the 61st minute, turned out to be the hero as his two goals in the 64th and 83rd minutes proved to be the difference between the two sides in the end.
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Real Madrid became the first club in the Champions League era (1992 onwards) to win a hat-trick of CL titles. By winning the tournament in 2016, 2017 and 2018, they won three back-to-back titles, becoming the first team since Bayern Munich in 1976 (European Cup Final) to achieve the feat in Europe’s premier club football tournament.
The 2018 Champions League victory allowed Real to claim a record 13th European Cup overall, having won the tournament in 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1966, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2014, 2016 and 2017 as well.
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