Thibaut Courtois won Real Madrid this Champions League. It’s time he’s shown some respect

In the end, the Champions League final between Liverpool and Real Madrid was all about Sergio Ramos — again. And he’ll love that.

Liverpool’s second shot at Los Blancos in the ultimate club final in the space of four years was supposed to be about what Mohamed Salah craved: revenge. It would be payback for the moment in 2018’s final in Kyiv when Ramos hauled him down to prevent a breakaway that threatened to give Jurgen Klopp’s team the lead, a decision that ended in the Egypt striker dislocating his shoulder and being led, tearfully, from the pitch in the 30th minute of what became a 3-1 defeat.

In the end, 2022’s final in Paris was actually all about what Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois wanted: not simply victory, but for his iconic moment in a Champions League final to date — a full-length left-to-right dive, with all 6-foot-7 of him at full extension, that failed to stop Ramos’ brilliant added-time header sneaking into the postage-stamp space between his fingertips and the right-hand post of Atletico Madrid’s goalmouth in the 2014 final in Lisbon — to be erased from memory. That night, Los Rojiblancos went from 1-0 up with seconds remaining to a 4-1 thrashing in extra-time. Courtois couldn’t live with that image defining him.

Both men wanted to shake Ramos from their Champions League final pain. Salah couldn’t; Courtois could — and did. The Belgium goalkeeper produced a majestic evening in the umpteenth match this season, across all the competitions in which Madrid competed, when a rival left the pitch thinking: “Why didn’t we win that? How does Courtois do those things?!”

After the match on Saturday night, Courtois told Spanish media in the mixed zone: “Desire is what really makes the difference in a big final like this. The key is having repeated to myself, ‘Today is my day. This is what I’ve worked for. Today I’m going to win this trophy. I will not lose another final.’ So to make that happen is a fantastic feeling.”

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