Juventus and Real Madrid have a date with destiny in Champions League final

Sergio Ramos described it as a “date with history”, and it is one they have waited a long time for. The last time Real Madrid were in this position, Alfredo Di Stéfano played his final game for the club, departing bitterly after defeat by Helenio Herrera’s Internazionale. Two years before, Ferenc Puskas scored three, but Eusebio’s goal denied them in Amsterdam; and the time before that, the last time they achieved what they seek to emulate on Saturday, Paco Gento’s extra-time winner defeated Milan 3-2 at the Heysel Stadium.

That was 59 years ago now, victory securing Madrid’s players 50,000 pesetas each, 25,000 per trophy: the bachelors earned £20 a month, married players £29, but all of them left Belgium £148 better off. They had earned it: Madrid had just completed a league and European Cup double.

It had happened before, in each of the two previous years, but it never happened again. Until now? Madrid have won 27 league titles since and eight European Cups, but not in the same season. Like in 1964 and 1962, they are 90 minutes away. Inter and Benfica denied them then; Juventus stand before them and history now – and “history”, as Ramos said, really is the word, even for the biggest, most successful club there is. Madrid have won 11 European Cups, but the last eight have come alone, stretching back to Brussels. These players could achieve what Puskas, Amancio, Sánchez, Butragueno, Zidane, and the original Ronaldo never did.

“Throughout our history, Madrid are the team that has won the most. We can’t live off the past, but that badge imposes upon you and we know our obligations,” Ramos said. “Our history is not coincidence. For us this is an opportunity that this wonderful sport gives us.”

It is an opportunity to eclipse some of their most successful generations. To do what Di Stéfano, [Héctor] Rial and Gento did. Much has changed since then, a long time has passed, a lot of players. These are different days. Pepe Santamaría recalled that the bonus “didn’t go far”. Yesterday, Juventus’s Dani Alves grinned that cheeky grin and said: “the president promised us a red horse [a Ferrari] if we win – let’s see if he delivers.” Madrid’s bonus is reportedly 1.5m euros each. The enormity of the achievement warrants it, even for them. After all, it is not just 1958, not just a wait of over half a century for this double; it is that another record stands before them: 25 years have passed since a team defended the European title.

“This is a chance to win it for a second year in a row,” Ramos said. Back then, Carlo Ancelotti, the man who led Madrid to the décima, their 10th European Cup three years ago, was on the pitch for Milan. So were Ruud Gullit, Frank Rijkaard and Marco van Basten. In the Champions League era, no team has emulated that Milan team, not even those that have defined epochs like Arrigo Sacchi’s side did. Juventus have been in consecutive finals but, having won it in 1996, in 1997 and 1998 they were defeated – as they would be again in 2003 and 2015.

“Real Madrid have a feeling with finals; they are used to winning them,” Gigi Buffon said, smiling slightly. “We, on the other hand, have lost a lot of finals.” For Madrid, it is 11 wins from 13, and three finals in four years, something Ramos described as “barbaric”. For Juventus, it is two from eight. “We are going try to change our history,” Buffon added. At 39, it could be his last opportunity: this is the only trophy he has not won. The last time he tried, Juve were beaten by Barcelona. That night in Berlin, Dani Alves played for the other side, collecting his third European Cup; now of course he is a team-mate. “I’d like to see him win it; I took one off them, I’d like to give one back,” Alves said. Buffon meanwhile admitted: “I asked Dani to teach us how to win this competition.”

“There is a thorn in Juventus’s side,” Alves said. “Whether that’s because they lost that final two years ago, or that it is twenty years since they won this competition, or that they lost the 1998 final to an offside goal …”

The “offside” goal, cheekily referenced, was scored by Pedja Mijatovic, to finally end Madrid’s 32-year wait for the trophy that despite those barren years had come to define them. Alves was enjoying this, a moment for fun, not for fear. “We are not scared of Madrid’s history,” he added. “We’ll play with ambition and desire. We’re hungry, and there’s a plate in front of us. We have to get there, pick up the cup and get out of there with it.” Told Alves’s words, Ramos replied: “we’ll be there at quarter to nine.”

If so, they will be an hour late. It’s a date, anyway. And it would be historic for Juventus too, completing their first ever treble, and making it eight clubs in European history. Alves alone is on for his third, making him unique.

It is that kind of occasion. A Champions League final is big anyway, but this feels even more significant; The plot is simple – win the European Cup – but there are subplots everywhere, waiting to be fleshed out. From Alves’s third treble, and against his former rivals, the team he has faced 42 times complete with international team-mate Marcelo, to Buffon’s last chance. “It wouldn’t change his whole career to have it, but it would be another golden history,” Alves said. Juventus’s captain, Buffon would be the oldest player to lift the trophy and he described potential victory as the “perfect finale”.

It is the perfect final for all of them; the strongest sides in Europe, Italian and Spanish champions. The competition’s best defence against its best attack. Different styles, different identities, yet much that is shared.

So much of this feels symbolic. The stories are many. Like the last time they met in a final, 1998 still the single most anxiously-awaited game in Madrid’s history, and one that Mijatovic described as being like “going from back-and-white to colour”. The European Cup’s most successful team finally won in the modern era, with Zidane on the other side. He had to leave Turin to win the European Cup: first as a player, then assistant coach, then coach. Here he is again, 18 months into his top flight managerial career, already seeking a second. And there’s more. There’s Gonzalo Higuaín against his former club, where the many he scored are less well remembered than the few he missed, a sense of bitterness accompanying his departure. “I’m trying not to think about it,” he admitted.

Sami Khedira, a Champions League winner with Madrid in 2014, too. “Lads it’s been a pleasure,” he said when he left. This week, he said something rather different, admitting: “As soon as I had a less good game, criticism started and people asked if I was good enough. It got on my nerves. At Juventus they see you differently. After five years there, I had to leave.” And Álvaro Morata, against those he credits with making him a man.

Then there’s Gareth Bale in Cardiff, forced to take pills to get him through training and matches as he fights to make it. Because he probably won’t, there’s Isco, centre-stage at last. And Cristiano Ronaldo’s bid to become the first player to score in three Champions League finals – if Ramos doesn’t get there first. Asked who would be the star if he and Ronaldo played together, Zidane said: “Him, for sure. I could play quite well, but he scores goals.” “Too much humility is not a good thing either,” Ronaldo said. “We’re better.”

Alves agreed. Indeed, he embraced the underdog role. But he was determined to enjoy this. He had started almost with a sales pitch, like a presenter getting everyone going, and he would end with one too. “Good afternoon,” he had begun, “it’s very special to be able to live this day. To be alongside so many great players, playing another final, is lovely. Everyone will stop to watch this game. We’re lucky to be here and we have to enjoy this moment. What we have to do is try to make the night even more special, sweat every last drop; this is the coronation of our season.” He ended by calling it: “very, very, very, very beautiful.” Whatever happens, there is a date set, history to be made and stories to be told.

The question is which ones.