Three years ago, Real Madrid won their back-to-back Champions League titles under Zinedine Zidane. Defensively strong Juventus met Real Madrid in the finals at Cardiff, England. Throughout the tournament, Buffon and Juve’s defence were tough to breach, but in the finals, Real Madrid breached that defence and netted four goals.
Marcelo had been one of the vital cogs of that Real Madrid side in that glorious season of 2016-17.
On the third anniversary of winning that title, Marcelo gave an interview to Real Madrid TV.
Here are the excerpts:
The fighting spirit
The most important thing is that when we win a trophy, we don’t think about stopping and letting time go by.
The most important thing is that when we win a trophy, we don’t think about stopping and letting time go by,” Marcelo told Real Madrid TV.
We always think about winning more, even if we’ve won three in a row.
When I arrived, Madrid taught me to fight until the end. You win the finals.
I’ve learned a lot with Real Madrid about this.
When we think we’ve won everything, we want to win again. That’s our way of thinking.
Breaching the solid defence of Juventus in the final
We always knew we could score goals and concede them.
We had to be stronger than them to be able to hold on.
In football, you can’t only think about scoring goals and simple things.
In the end, the player who can handle the pressure in a final stand out more.
We held on at 1-1 in the first half when we were together, and in a final, you don’t play, you win. That’s how Madrid will always be.
In the first half, we were very good, but in a final, things are never easy.
We saw that there were spaces and the coach always told us to be patient because if there were spaces, we could score. A shot from distance could go in.
We were able to dig in, it seemed easy and we were well on top of Juve, but it was difficult. We were patient, tight, and very united.
Real Madrid often perform well in finals, and that has been particularly true in Europe’s premier club competition over the last few years.
Real Madrid grow in finals.
We have a mentality for this kind of match and at the end you see your friend giving everything and you have to give it too. The coach is the same.
Motivation makes you feel good, you grow in the match and when you play a final you have to win it.
On the return of La Liga
We’re improving, we’ve had a hard time without training or playing football, without contact with our teammates.
We have got 11 finals and we have to give everything to win.
We are playing for a very important trophy; we will try to win everything [remaining].
We are excited to be able to train again and to know that we are going to play in LaLiga again, too.
