Like with so many other post-game conferences, the key word out of Zinedine Zidane's mouth after the game, repeated multiple times, was 'suffer'. Real Madrid as they have so many times to date, had to suffer again, dramatically staving away a desperate Bayern Munich team, down to the very last second, as a the final kick of the game just eluded a lunging Thomas Muller. Madrid did it, making a 3rd consecutive Champions League Final, a game away from winning three in a row. Until last year, no one had won two in a row. Still, though, people are trying to minimize just how special this is, because of how many times Madrid had to 'suffer', but that is just the reason why they are special in the first place.
The top teams don't suffer often, usually they are the ones who force others to suffer, and we laud those other teams when it happens. We laud Chelsea for bravely going into the Camp Nou in 2012 and beating Barcelona despite Barcelona having oodles of chances and Messi missing a penalty. We should laud them. Just like we should laud Real Madrid for doing the same against Bayern Munich, for taking their chances when presented, for seamlessly playing out an away win at the Allianz with a winger playing left back in Lucas Vazquez. For Karim Benzema pushing aside jeers that have faced him all season to score two huge goals.
This Madrid three year run has been strange. Two years ago, they truly suffered on their way to the title, maybe the least impressive large club to ever do it. They lost 0-2 in the first leg of the Quarterfinals against Wolfsburg, needed a Cristiano miracle hat-trick to save them. They beat a good but not great Man City team 1-0 in the semifinals over two dour legs. They needed penalties to beat Atletico Madrid in the final.
Last year was different. They won all their ties. They struggled a bit against Bayern Munich in the quarterfinals, but missed as many chances as Bayern did across 180 even minutes, and ran away 3-0 in the 30 minutes of extra time. They raced Atletico Madrid, and smashed Juventus 4-1 in the final. That was a truly great Champion.
This year is a weird dichotomy, getting the insults of 'not deserving to win' like the 2016 unit despite having one of the hardest run to the Final we've seen. They beat France Champion PSG 6-2 across two legs. Then beat the likely Italian champions and easy German champions, winning both of the away legs. It's so interesting actually. Madrid is setting history despite holding on and barely winning. They are the first team ever to win the away leg in each of their knockout ties, and they did it fairly impressively each time. They held off barely against Juventus and Bayern Munich.
On the whole, we can find fault in their quality of play. We can say Bayern outplayed them but wasted chance after chance. We can say they nearly blew it against Juventus. We can say all of that, but at the end we have to call them as resilient, a team that fights in a way other high-priced, high-fame superteams just do not. They never have a truly awful game, like Barca did this year to Roma, or last year to Juve. They never give up. They track back - Ronaldo was a monster in that effort. They've done this without really signing any big-name players the last few years. Zidane has setadfastly said he has a team that is good enough; that he doesn't need new players, and they've paid him back.
Real Madrid had a terrible year in La Liga by their standards (though by expected goals they have performed about as good as Barca, just not as clinical in scoring - the one claim everyone has tagged on Madrid's opponents in the Champions League). But they have the Champions League, their competition. They've mastered this competition by being able to play the underdog, the sufferer, and when you combine that with a team good enough to play the dominant force, you get something special.
