EL name Paco Gento (1933-2022) has been at the top of the European Cup for 58 years. Because he was only able to win the big club competition six times. In half a dozen came May 11, 1966 (in Russian), As leader of the Madrid Yi, The 100% Spanish team that returned to partizen in Brussels to return to the White House the trophy that was theirs during the first five editions, from 1956 to 1960.
For more than half a century, this record has sounded like one of the feats of a sport that over the years is perceived as impossible to overcome. But they say that any brand, no matter how impressive, has an expiration date. That the singular domain of Paco Gento He has a real threat for the first time. Because there are four players from his Real Madrid That he could put them in their prime if he raised the White team to 15 what he left at six in 1966. It is the result of a team that since 2014 has reached six finals out of eleven and achieved complete victories in the previous five in front of Wembley.
From the Madrid Campen Europa in 2014, three players remained in the current squad. All three, logically , are today’s captains and wear on their palms the five champions with whom he left the club last season Karim Benzema.
Kroos: Madrid 4-Bayern 1
Of all the Madrid players, Toni Kroos is the only one who can tell what it’s like to lose the final. I lived in what was his home in 2012, when Chelsea finally won a penalty shootout against Bayern at Allianz.
And you can also count, as Alaba wardiger, What it’s like to win it with another shirt. And at Wembley. Because in the English temple he won 2013, before Borussia Dortmund. The other four he has Are Real Madrid players.
His UEFA Champions League debut for Madrid was on 16 September 2014, against Basel. Of the 109 matches that White played in the Queen’s competition, there are four matches in the final, starting in each of them. The opportunity in London will be the last in his career, which he will put an end to after the European Championships in his country this summer.
Nacho, captain of the fifteenth team
The first captain is Nacho. The debut in European Cup It dates back to December 4, 2012 against Ajax. In the Lisbon final he did not get dressed and in the other four he played only in one of Kiev, when Carvajal broke before Liverpool. He got to one in London as a teammate of Rediger in the last three years of the Champions League, but with the threat of Militao. It will be he who will lift the title in the event of the arrival of the fifteenth.
Nacho made 69 appearances in the Champions League.
Carvajal, flag of Valdebebas
Return Dani CarvajalTo Madrid coincides with the opening of the season that he himself qualified on Tuesday in Valdipepas Like ” Wow.”A year later he spent in Leverkusen She returns in the 2013-14 season, which ended in Lisbon and opened the endless cycle. His European debut for the team of his life was on September 17, 2013, against Galatasaray. In the five finals won was a start, although two: Milan and Kiev, only at the gates of the final two stages with a choice.
The list of his matches in the Champions Foundation is at 88.
Modric, Lisbon pass
What Madrid experienced in the last match in the Dutch Premier League cannot be understood without the 93rd minute of Lisbon. Sergio Ramos He is the owner of that moment , but history has not forgotten who put the ball from a corner: Luka Modric. The Croatian’s name is in the sanctuary of Real Madrid. He is a legend among legends. And his desire to continue playing, to become the oldest player who defended the white shirt and left behind another legend, pushkas.
Of Modric’s 119 Champions League appearances for Madrid, the first was against Manchester City (18-9-2012). Of the five finals, she stopped only playing the last minute against Liverpool in Saint-Denis.