For 90 minutes Real huffed and puffed in front of the Atletico goal. Sergio Ramos’ injury-time equaliser smashed open the door before Gareth Bale, Marcelo and Cristiano Ronaldo’s extra-time strikes blew the whole house down.
It was a flamboyant finish as Madrid claimed their long-awaited 10th European title – the fabled ‘La Decima’ – with a dramatic comeback victory over Atletico, who had led from Diego Godin’s header and for much of the game had withstood everything Real threw at them.
It denied Atletico what would have been a remarkable league and European double – something the club has never done before – but by the end they were dead on their feet, exemplified by the lack of defending for Marcelo’s effort and the otherwise excellent Juanfran’s lazy foul on Ronaldo for the penalty.
Before the game, Atletico sprang a major surprise with the inclusion of star striker Diego Costa, who suffered a hamstring injury just a week previously.
Carlo Ancelotti’s major decision, meanwhile, was to select Sami Khedira in an unfamiliar defensive midfield position to cover for the suspended Xabi Alonso, even though the German midfielder has rarely played in that role and only recently returned from a long-term knee injury.
Real made the brighter start without creating any danger around Thibaut Courtois’ goal, and the first talking point came after nine minutes when Diego Simeone’s big gamble failed to pay off as Costa was forced to withdraw after again injuring his fragile hamstring.
With both teams adopting a cautious approach, there were no early openings with the first shot on goal coming after 13 minutes when Raul Garcia’s speculative long-range effort flew a long way over the bar.
Atletico, as always, were looking extremely organised defensively but they were caught on the break after Real cleared a corner and the lively Angel Di Maria sprinted downfield, with his run only halted by a crude foul from Garcia.
From the subsequent free-kick Ronaldo tested Courtois for the first time but the Belgian keeper comfortably kept out his bouncing effort.
The first major chance was aglorious one after 32 minutes, when Tiago misplaced a pass into the path of Bale, whose penetrating run cut open the Atletico defence to provide a clear sight of goal, but the Welshman miskicked his left-footed effort wide.
Within five minutes Atletico were ahead. Gabi’s right-wing corner was only partially cleared and when the ball was played back into the box Iker Casillas and Khedira were beaten to the ball by Godin, whose headed effort floated goalwards and bounced with an agonising lack of pace over the line.
Ronaldo had a trio of chances early in the second period after Di Maria was fouled outside the penalty area, but the Portuguese star had his deflected free-kick tipped over by Courtois, a shot deflected wide and a header drift off target from a pair of subsequent corners.
Atletico’s attacks were rare but their defence was resolute against Real’s increasingly desperate attacks, with a dangerous centre from Ramos across the face of goal and a shot dragged wide from substitute Isco the best they could muster.
Then Bale had two excellent chances, firstly miskicking a snapshot wide from the edge of the box and then finishing a surging run inside from the right wing with another poor connection.
Atletico defended superbly but just when they thought they had crossed the line, Real won a pair of injury-time corners and from the second of those, Ramos rose high to thump a powerful header into the bottom left corner, giving Courtois no chance.
A free-kick from Ronaldo which was deflected wide was the only opportunity of the first period of extra time as Real, predictably, enjoyed the majority of the play.
It was a similar pattern in the last 15 minutes and Di Maria was the catalyst for the decisive second, breaking inside from the left and having his shot saved by Courtois but seeing the rebound loop into Bale’s path for a simple header.
Marcelo wrapped it up after waltzing through an exhausted Atletico defence and Ronaldo added another from the penalty spot as Madrid finally secured a long-awaited teneth European crown.
