REAL MADRID CLINCHES 15TH CHAMPIONS LEAGUE TITLE , SPANKS DORTMUND 2-0 AS UEFA CHANGES CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FORMAT NEXT SEASON

By Olopade Sakiru

It was a glorious night yesterday for Real Madrid after winning 2023/24 Champions League with an emphatic two nill victory against Borussia Dortmund at the jam-packed Wembley Stadium.

The Los Blancos's victory yesterday night made it 15th time they had clinched the UEFA Champions League with Carlo Ancelotti winning it for five times and his third with Real Madrid.

Borussia Dortmund dominated an exciting opening half but they were wasteful in front of goal, lacking the clinical finishing.

The Nigerian born star, Karim Adeyemi missed two glaring chances while striker Niclas Fullfrug who was unlucky hit the goal post .

The Real Madrid shot stopper, Thibaut Courtois who struggled throughout the season due to injury was in a superb form, making daring saves to deny the rampaging Borussia Dortmund from finding the back of the net.

However, the Los Blancos waited till later part of the encounter to punish Dortmund for failing to converting their chances  that could have taken the game beyond Real Madrid.

Dani Carvajal broke the deadlock in the 74th minute with a fine header from Kross's corner kick before the enterprising Brazilian, Vinicius Junior scored the second goal in the 83rd minute from Bellingham's pass to put the game beyond Dortmund and to seal victory for the Carlo Ancelotti's men.

What could have marred the highly entertained game was a short distruption of about two minutes in the opening minutes due to pitch invasion by two people but play restarted after the security agents' intervention.

With the victory and 15th Champions League in the kitty, Real Madrid will lock horns with Atalanta in the European Super Cup.

Meanwhile,  big changes, coming to the UEFA champions league next season. 

The number of teams competing will increase from 32-36 , meaning, there will be 189 matches instead of 125 and the group stage will be replaced by a league phase, otherwise known as " Swiss Model"

Each team will be guaranteed to play 8 matches on the league phase of which they will play half at home and half away.

The top 8 sides in the league phase will qualify for the knockout stage while those finishing in 9th to 24th will compete in two-legged play off to determine who join the top 8 sides in the round of 16.