Real Madrid beat Liverpool 3-1, win 3rd successive Champions League title

Gareth Bale scored twice including an incredible overhead kick after coming off the bench as Real Madrid defeated Liverpool 3-1 in the Champions League final in Kiev on Saturday.

Bale replaced Isco on the hour and connected with an outrageous acrobatic effort on 64 minutes to put Real back in front.

The Welshman sealed a record-extending 13th European Cup title for Real with seven minutes left as a dreadful mistake from Loris Karius allowed his long-range shot to find the net.

Liverpool's hopes of landing a sixth European Cup were landed a huge blow as 44-goal top-scorer Mohammed Salah was forced off with a shoulder injury after just 30 minutes of Saturday's Champions League final against Real Madrid.

Salah was injured in a position with Madrid's captain Sergio Ramos with the score at 0-0. The veteran defender grabbed Salah chasing the ball and held on to Salah's right arm. In their twisting fall, the Egypt forward landed heavily on his left shoulder. Ramos was not shown a yellow card.

Salah was in obvious pain and pointing to his left shoulder when he fell to the ground for a second time, four minutes after he tangled with Ramos.

Egyptian winger Salah, who has won a plethora of individual awards for his performances in his debut season at Anfield, was in tears as he left the field to be replaced by Adam Lallana.

The Madrid side were also forced to make a change in the first half shortly after Salah went off when defender Dani Carvajal injured himself as he attempted a backheel. The Spain international was also seen crying as he left the pitch to be replaced by Nacho in the 37th minute.

Keylor Navas held a stinging drive from Trent Alexander-Arnold in what represented Liverpool's best chance so far, while French forward Karim Benzema was denied a goal on 43 minutes by the offside flag after converting a rebound from a Cristiano Ronaldo header.

On 47th minute, a shoot just outside the penalty area fired by Madrid midfielder Isco bounced off the goal post.

Real Madrid took the lead as Benzema did not forgive a huge mistake by Liverpool goalkeeper Loris Karius in 51th minute. Karius had the ball in his hands and rolled the ball out toward a defender, but Benzema stuck out his right foot and guided the ball slowly into the empty net.

Liverpool's Sadio Mane responded four minutes later, bringing the score to 1-1. Senegalese midfielder Mane pounced from close range in the 55th when defender Dejan Lovren rose to guide a header from a corner into the goalmouth.

Liverpool fans, upset by Salah's injury, began chanting fervently but their joy did not last long as Bale fired a superb bicycle kick in 64th minute, bringing the score to 2-1. Bale got the decisive goal, then added his second in the 83rd.

"Tonight is certainly a historic moment," Real Madrid's Zinedine Zidane told BeIn Sports. "To win three times in a row... It's something crazy to experience that. Even if we believe it, we think about it when we work hard.

"With a team like this, we can go far but to win three of them, it's something crazy.

"You have to make the most of it, and think about what the players have done together."

Zidane, 45, became the first coach to win the Champions Leagues in three consecutive seasons, having only taken charge of the team in his first senior management role in January 2016.

Liverpool fans outnumbered and outsang Real Madrid's following in the 63,000-capacity crowd. Both teams' fan anthems were played before kickoff and the red scarves of Liverpool fans peppered one corner of the end occupied by Madrid supporters during "You'll Never Walk Alone." The game kicked off with Liverpool fans' current Champions League song, "Allez, Allez, Allez," booming around the Olympic Stadium in Kiev. Both teams were allocated more than 16,000 tickets for the game.

Earlier in the day, tens of thousands of Liverpool and Real Madrid fans gathered in central Kiev on a warm and sunny day ahead of Saturday's Champions League final.

Supporters of both sides were out in force from early in the day, and cafes and restaurants in and around the central Khreshchatyk thoroughfare were packed several hours ahead of the match which kicks off at 18.45 GMT at the NSC Olimpiyskiy Stadium.

Security is tight in Kiev, with police lining the center, which has been closed to traffic. That seems to have prevented repeats of Thursday night's attack on Liverpool fans at a restaurant — apparently by Ukrainian hooligans — which left two injured.

According to British media reports, more than 1,000 Liverpool supporters were expected to miss the match after their tour operator cancelled three flights because it did not have sufficient landing slots at Boryspil Airport. Soaring accommodation prices persuaded roughly the same number of Madrid fans to have their ticket money refunded rather than travel to Ukraine.

The BBC meanwhile quoted Liverpool John Lennon Airport as saying about 4,500 passengers flew to Kiev on Saturday morning. A total of 23 flights departed between 0200 and 1000 GMT.

Organizer UEFA has said refunded tickets will be made available to locals but there is likely to be the unusual sight of empty seats at a Champions League final.

Those fans who did make it are largely positive about Kiev, where the beer is cheap and a festival atmosphere is apparent in the city center.

Madrid fans Fabino Mohino and Yago Saez said they spent about 750 euros ($875) apiece on flights and traveled for 20 hours through Barcelona.

"We were lucky to have a friend of a friend in the suburbs," Mohino said, meaning they could dodge Kiev hotel prices which are as much as $2,000 a night.

"Loving it," added Saez, who has attended six of the last seven Champions League finals. "So far, so good."

Four years ago, Kiev's central square was a battleground. Now it's packed with fans ahead of the Champions League final.

Popularly known as Maidan, in late 2013 and early 2014 the square was the scene of protests which eventually ousted then-President Viktor Yanukovych.

Crowds camped out on the square for weeks, battled police, and more than 100 people were shot dead on the square and in surrounding streets.

On Saturday, Real Madrid and Liverpool supporters mixed with locals on the square as musical fountains played Frank Sinatra's "My Way."

"I came here in 2014 and these buildings were all charred and there were tires everywhere after the demonstrations," says Stefan Polotajko, a British Liverpool fan with relatives in Ukraine. "The way it's been transformed is absolutely amazing."

Also on the square was Lyudmyla Agafonova, who moved to Kiev with her family because of the conflict with Russia-backed separatists in her home city of Donetsk.

She says "the Real fans are more fun. Liverpool are a bit more restrained, like the English in general. We're happy it's all happening here."

Her husband Serhiy adds "it's great to have all these foreigners here," and "Ukraine is slowly getting closer to Europe."

Twelve-time European champions Real are seeking a third successive Champions League title, while Liverpool are out to become European champions for a sixth time and the first since 2005.

Real's Zinedine Zidane could become the first coach to win Europe's premier club title three times in consecutive seasons for the same club, while star striker Cristiano Ronaldo is out to win a fifth CL title.

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp is in his second Champions League final after losing with Borussia Dortmund against Bayern Munich in 2013.

Liverpool hoped European Cup history from May 1981 would repeat itself.

When Liverpool beat Real Madrid 1-0 in the final 37 years ago, it was the only time an English team beat a Spanish opponent to lift the iconic, large-handled trophy in the competition's 63-year history.

Each England vs. Spain final since then went Spain's way, though none involved Madrid.

Barcelona accounted for all three wins, beating Arsenal in the 2006 final, and Manchester United twice, in 2009 and two years later.

Madrid has lost all three of its European finals against British teams.

An Aberdeen team managed by Alex Ferguson beat Alfredo Di Stefano's Madrid in the 1983 European Cup Winners' Cup final. In the same competition, Madrid lost the 1971 final to Chelsea.