The stats behind Ronaldo and Real Madrid's thrashing of Juventus in the Champions League final
Real Madrid wrote themselves further into the history books in Cardiff on Saturday night as they picked apart Juventus in a 4-1 victory to claim the UEFA Champions League.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s opener was cancelled out by a fine reply from Mario Mandzukic, but Casemiro’s deflected shot from range early in the second period provided the spark Zinedine Zidane’s men required to go on and win the game easily.
Ronaldo got another soon after, and in stoppage time Marco Asensio added a fourth after Juan Cuadrado had been sent off.
Although the first half of the encounter had been balanced, Madrid’s dominance after the break was such that virtually every key statistic favoured them comfortably by full-time.
They managed twice as many shots on goal as their opponents, 18 to nine, while they completed over 100 passes more than the Italians.
Madrid were not simply shooting from anywhere, though. Of their 18 attempts on goal, 16 of them were attempted from a central area and half were taken from inside the box.
This was a side playing with a purpose and able to execute their gameplan perfectly against opponents who had previously conceded only three goals in the whole competition.
The Italians, meanwhile, were restricted to shooting often from more awkward areas and, as a rule, from a greater distance out. In total, 56 per cent of their shots came from outside of the box.
Juventus’ midfield were not able to dictate the terms of the game as they would have wished, with their passing accuracy struggling to get over 80 per cent over the course of the match. Madrid, meanwhile, boasted close to a 90 per cent mark on that measure.
The Spaniards’ greater mastery of the ball allowed them to enjoy 56 percent of the total possession.
At half-time, these numbers would have looked rather different, but come referee Felix Bricht’s final whistle there was no disputing which team was on top.
The final score accurately reflected Madrid’s control over a second half that will go down in the club's folklore, with Ronaldo once again the man to take the starring role as Real picked up their 12th European crown – the only statistic that ultimately counts.