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UCL FINAL

Courtois frustrates Salah, Mane as Real Madrid defeat Liverpool to clinch Champions League trophy

Thibaut Courtois made an astonishing nine (9) saves as Real Madrid beat Liverpool to clinch their 14th UEFA Champions League trophy

Thibaut Courtois kept Mohamed Salah out numerous times in the 2021/22 UEFA Champions League final at the Stade de France (Twitter/UEFA)

Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois was the star of the night as the Belgian international kept out Liverpool for Real Madrid to win their 14th Champions League trophy.

Real Madrid's forward Vinicius Junior scored the only goal of the night as the Brazilian forward converted Federico Valverde's inch-perfect pass in the 59th minute to give Los Blancos the lead.

Liverpool forwards Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane were unable to get past the Real Madrid No 1 as Courtois made impressive saves from the African stars.

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Liverpool forwards Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane were unable to get past the Real Madrid No 1 as Courtois made impressive saves from the African stars.

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Liverpool named both Salah and Mane in their starting XI with Luis Diaz completing the Reds' front three as they lined out for their third Champions League final in five years.

Salah was chasing revenge against Real Madrid for their 2018 Champions League loss and the Egyptian forward had six chances to score the goal that eluded him four seasons ago.

In all Salah fired off nine (9) shots on the night with the other three (3) shots been blocked by the Madrid defense as the Egyptian forward failed to find the back of the night.

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Senegalese forward Mane was less influential in the final in Paris, tallying only four (4) shot actions for the entire 90 minutes. Only one (1) of his shots was on target with two (2) blocked by the Madrid defence and one (1) hitting the woodwork.

In overall team statistics, Liverpool had 24 shots in total with nine (9) on target, six (6) off-target and another nine (9) shots blocked by their Spanish opponents.

For all of Liverpool's attacking dominance, Real Madrid goalkeeper Courtois put in an inspired performance to keep the English side out of this goal.

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Courtois made an unbelievable nine (9) saves all match for Madrid, with seven (7) of those saves being within the penalty box and the other two (2) saves being high claims.

The former Chelsea goalkeeper showed his command of his penalty box at the Stade de France, tallying up his saves with 65 touches of the ball, mostly within his penalty area.

Courtois also made one (1) clearance, won his only aerial duel in the match and recorded a 52.5% pass accuracy rate as well as finding a Real Madrid player eight ( times from 27 long balls.

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Real Madrid adds the Champions League trophy to the Spanish La Liga and Spanish Super Cup they won earlier in the season under Italian manager Carlo Ancelotti.

Ancelotti became the first manager to win four (4) Champions League trophies having won it twice (2002/03 & 2006/07) at AC Milan and once before (2013/14) with Real Madrid.

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has now lost three (3) of the four (4) Champions League finals he has played in, once at Borussia Dortmund and twice with Liverpool (both times to Real Madrid).

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