Mate, after reading similar posts, it sounds as if a CL is always won by a team who is a king of the world in that season.
I mean, some of our (Barca's) Cl titles were really in that fashion, but in majority of cases, a CL is won by teams who were way weaker than the current Real.
2004: Porto, in knockout rounds won against:
-- Man. Utd, Lyon, Deportivo and Monaco, lol
-- were they the best team in that season? Lol, no
-- who cares and remembers that today?
2005: Liverpool
-- ended 5th in EPL with +37 points (lol) behind Chelsea
-- were they the BEST team in Europe in that season?
-- hell no
2007: Ac Milan
-- ended as 4th in Serie A with +36 (lol again) behind Inter
-- were they the best team in Europe, lol?
2012: Chelsea
-- 6th in EPL
Also, Real's last 5 CL titles:
-- 1998: 4th in La Liga
-- 2000: 5th in La Liga
-- 2002: 3rd in La Liga
-- 2014: 3rd in La Liga
-- 2016: 2nd in La Liga
So, Real won (their) last 5 CL finals in a row.
Plus, in neither of those seasons they were champions of La liga.
CL is not about consistency and playing beautiful for 12 Months.
It is about some luck, mental strength, motivation and hot-form in March-April-May.
See I think there have been teams, particularly us, who have demonstrated that the CL is about consistency and domination. That's why the fluky ones are so annoying, they take away from teams that earned it. The CL winner isn't always the best team in Europe overall but they are usually the best team in the tournament or upset the best team in Europe or the tournament.
Milan 2007 had Kaka at his most unplayable, so while they arguably weren't the best in Europe that season, they had the best player in the world, so that wasn't pure luck.
Liverpool 2005 beat Milan when they were the best team in Europe, they also knocked out Chelsea on their way, so that wasn't luck either.
But Chelsea 2012, now and Porto 2004 take the cake for the biggest flukes in this tournament so far. Like someone said prior, Real really should have won it in 2012 when they got dumped out by Bayern in PKs. That was them at their best, even better than when they won La Decima.
Outside of those three and I'd argue Inter 2010, the best team in Europe that season has usually won the tournament but I think there too many factors due to the format of the tournament that create dubious results at times. For example, I hate that teams aren't seeded, the away goal rule (I get it due to fatigue of the players but there are better and more exciting ways of settling ties) and that there isn't a set tournament bracket, like almost every other major sports championship and even the World Cup if you think it's Americanism bias.
I just want to close by saying I'm almost more mad at Atletico than Real at this point bc I really wish we could have played the Athletico we saw tonight. Real wasn't playing that well but particularly in the 1st half, I hardly recognized them. Disjointed in possession and sloppy defending with some particularly poor marking. Koke was invisible, Torres was shit and its a wonder how Carrasco didn't start from the get go. Why, oh why, couldn't Real have drawn Atletico in the quarters instead of us? Really think that draw alone sealed our fate in CL, mainly due to how familiar they were with seeing our attack.
As much as that draw sucked and was terrible luck on us, the difference with our title defense this season and say in 2010 and 2012 was we lost to the better team over the two legs. We only put together one half where we truly played at our best (1st leg, 2nd half), otherwise we were pretty shit and our approach at the Calderon was a joke. Against Chelsea and Inter, that was not the case. I will always feel comfortable in pinning Inter 2010 on the refs. Irrespective of the mistakes they made in the first leg, that disallowed Bojan goal was a true injustice (far greater than the "conspiracy" Chelsea moaned about during the Miracle at the Bridge in 2009). Speaking of Chelsea, 2012 hurt just as much bc we played so well in both legs and to keep missing those chances was just shocking. So those two hurt far more than this one and at least this time, I finished the tie thinking the better team won.
Overall this was just a shit CL, from start to finish with a boring as fuck final that will surely be forgotten. I still believe Messi has enough time left in his career to defend a CL title. Hopefully Real just get cocky, think they are the best in Europe so Fiorentino will sell 2 key players this summer that destabilizes the team and we storm back next season for another treble, something Real STILL hasn't pulled off.
Good night cules, just remember this as you go to sleep:
[youtube]ohW7TlFKdcA[/youtube]
