Implacable self-belief carries Real Madrid to Champions League glory

In every walk of life, there are people whose greatest gift is being the most confident person in the room. They succeed and you can never quite work out why. What is it they actually do? Is it anything beyond just looking the part? Real Madrid have just won the Champions League for the 14th time.

It can’t just be luck. There has to be more to it than that. And yet in every game in the knockout phase of this Champions League, against Paris Saint-Germain, against Chelsea, against Manchester City, they have had fewer shots than their opponents. On Saturday, Liverpool had 24 shots to Madrid’s four. The only difference between the final and what had gone before was that this time there was no point at which Liverpool apparently had the game won, and Karim Benzema didn’t score.

But Liverpool did suffer that bizarre syndrome that seems to afflict all of Madrid’s opponents at some point when they run into that implacable self-belief and suddenly misplace the capacity to perform the simplest tasks. Experienced players were transformed into starstruck teenagers bumping into their hero and finding themselves unable to do anything other than stare at their feet and blurt out random high-pitched squawks.

Passes are misplaced, crosses overhit, dangerous forwards weirdly ignored. Defenders and goalkeepers who have been solid all season end up lying down in the box as the ball ricochets between them and only a VAR decision that nobody seemed able to explain rules out an opening goal.

Liverpool may point out that Sadio Mané hit the post, that Thibaut Courtois was forced into two superb saves, that they had the chances. But there was never really a sense that they would equalise. The rendition of You’ll Never Walk Alone in injury time