Champions League final: Real Madrid seals 15th European Cup after 2-0 win over Borussia Dortmund

LONDON (AP) — In an explosion of gold and silver confetti, Real Madrid lifted the Champions League trophy for the 15th time on Saturday.

The most famous face in European club football’s biggest competition felt fresher than ever after a 2-0 win against Borussia Dortmund in the final at Wembley Stadium.

“Get used to it? Never,” said Carlo Ancelotti, who extended his own record of wins as a coach to five. “The dream continues.”

A white wall of Madrid fans at one end of the stadium serenaded their conquering heroes after goals from Dani Carvajal and Vinicius Junior sealed the win.

A predictable result came in less than predictable circumstances after Dortmund dominated chances in the first half.

“It was a very difficult match, much more difficult than we expected,” Ancelotti said. “We changed things because we were a bit lazy in the first half.”

Carvajal headed Madrid ahead in the 74th minute and Vinicius doubled the Spanish giants’ lead nine minutes later.

Ancelotti’s fifth Champions League title was his third in two spells at Madrid and two more than his nearest rivals Zinedine Zidane, Pep Guardiola and Bob Paisley.

Carvajal, Luka Modric, Toni Kroos and Nacho won the trophy for the sixth time, equaling the benchmark set by Madrid icon Paco Gento.

Madrid’s victory comes just a year after Manchester City lifted the trophy for the first time, a win that many thought would herald a new era of dominance for Guardiola’s side in Europe. Instead, it was Ancelotti who underlined his case to be considered the best coach of his generation due to his continued supremacy in the Champions League.

In addition to three titles with Madrid, he was a two-time winner with AC Milan. He also won the Spanish title this season – his sixth national title in five different countries.

Madrid’s dominance in the competition is unbelievable as they have won more than double of anyone else. Milan is the second most successful club with seven.

Madrid have won nine titles in the Champions League era, their second in three seasons.

“This is the love story between Real Madrid and the European Cup. Players come, players go, but we can say this is our league,” said Madrid president Florentino Perez.

The club’s dominance will take some time as Kylian Mbappe is widely expected to arrive as a free agent from Paris Saint-Germain in the off-season and Brazil’s rising starter Endrick is on the way.

Not that Perez would confirm Mbappé’s arrival.

“You can ask me as many times as you want, but I’m only going to talk about the players who are in the Real Madrid team,” he said. “And especially today, when we just won a European Cup. These are the players who deserve all the praise.

“The future? We’ll have to talk about that at another time.”

However, Ancelotti is already thinking about the future.

“There is a constant demand at this club. It is never satisfied,” he said. “We will come back with the same eagerness and with the same excitement and anticipation as before.”

Dortmund paid the price for not making the most of their superiority in the first half when Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois made a series of saves and Niclas Fullkrug hit the post.

Madrid took full advantage after the break when Carvajal met Kroos’ corner at the near post and fired a header past Dortmund keeper Gregor Kobel.

Vinicius fired past Kobel to make it 2-0 and raced away in celebration after his goal ended Dortmund’s hopes of one of the biggest Champions League upsets in recent memory. Later, Vinicius celebrated and posed for selfies with rapper Jay-Z, who was in the crowd of 86,000.

It was the second time Dortmund had lost in the final, having been defeated by Bayern Munich in 2013, when the showpiece also took place at Wembley.

The only victory in the competition came in 1997, but for a long time the German team seemed capable of holding off Madrid after dominating the chances in the first half.

Coach Edin Terzic tactically outwitted Ancelotti in every department and Madrid’s stars were subdued.

Only a combination of Courtois and the frame of the goal kept the scores level at half-time, after the keeper twice denied Karim Adeyemi a goal and then watched as Fullkrug’s sliding effort came back off the post.

“There was a momentum when the game turned and you see why they are the champions of this competition,” Terzic said. “We couldn’t score and that was the key why we couldn’t win the game.”