Zinedine Zidane hugged his head and walked away for about a second. Then very quickly, he realized that the door of history had opened before his eyes, after Gareth Bale's wonderful light job. The French coach turned his hands and gradually increased the tempo to the cheers of the Madridistas.
Not far away, Juergen Klopp was in a deep breath, accepting the bitter truth about his 6th consecutive defeat in the finals. He must have wondered why bad luck kept chasing him and refused to give up. While Zidane, surprisingly, always wins important matches.
After a short 29 months in charge, the former player who has been a coach has won 9 titles, including 3 consecutive Champions League titles - the first in history to do so. There are coaches who try their whole life to lift the European Cup just once. Some of the most outstanding players, such as Arrigo Sacchi, Sir Alex Ferguson, Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola, have won twice. Zidane is better than that.
However, the French coach never gave the impression that he was better than the other managers. Without creating great tactical achievements or implementing special tactical refinements, nor proposing a philosophy or creating a clear style, many people think Zizou is a lucky star. Simply put, he chose the right place, the right time to step out and reap glory.
As in the final match in Kiev, everyone saw how lucky Real were. The game situation has changed since Mohamed Salah was injured. And when Liverpool showed that they could play without the Egyptian star, Loris Karius made terrible mistakes.
But now let's ask, why did Salah leave the pitch early, who took advantage of Karius' first mistake, and who made the Liverpool goalkeeper make a second mistake? It's easy to answer, right? The three names that made up the three decisive moments of the match were Sergio Ramos, Karim Benzema and Bale. That was the time to ask the next question, why them?
Zidane is the answer to everything. The French coach is not too good at tactics, he himself admits that. But in return, Zizou is too good at managing people.
It is not natural that Ramos, a stubborn leader, absolutely restrained Zidane, and declared that he was always behind, ready to fight and do everything to win, for him.
Once again, Zidane is ready to remove Benzema and Bale from the starting lineup at many times to promote his views, focusing on form, not reputation. But on the other hand, he has always stood by them in the face of criticism, such as refuting Gary Lineker's claim "Benzema is overrated" with praise, " Karim is the perfect number 9 and does not need to score every match to prove it".
That is the reason why when given the opportunity, they shine brilliantly. Benzema showed good ability to react responsibly and clench the momentum. Bale kept quiet. The Welsh star had a brilliant night in the context of Ronaldo being unable to score.
Zidane said he may not be the best coach, but the important thing is that he has passion, enthusiasm and hope. Zizou was very good at passing it on to his students and keeping them happy. For the stars, that was enough.
Jose Mourinho once said that the difference between mediocre and excellent coaches is not in tactics, because any coach can talk about tactics. It is determined by other factors.
Therefore, it is time to end the controversy over Zidane's talent. One who beat Klopp, Jupp Heynckes, Max Allegri last season was Carlo Ancelotti, Diego Simeone and Maurizio Sarri, and the three-time Champions League championship deserved to be the best.
