Champions League Final: Juventus are the last hurdle in Zidane’s path to history with Real Madrid

Only Zinedine Zidane’s former club Juventus stand between the Real Madrid coach and football history in tomorrow’s star-studded Champions League final in Cardiff.

A head coach for only 17 months, the former France playmaker can become the first manager to win back-to-back European Cups in the post-1992 Champions League era.

Zidane had a hand in Madrid’s ninth, 10th and 11th European triumphs — as a player, assistant coach and head coach — and the quest for the ‘Duodecima’ (12th) brings him up against an old flame.

“I played at Juventus for five years and I’ve got good memories of that time. It’s a special final,” said the Frenchman. “We’re very close to doing it (winning successive finals) and we’re the first to be so close to doing it for so many years. But we haven’t won anything yet.”

Victorious against city rivals Atletico Madrid in the 2014 and 2016 finals, Real are chasing a third success in four seasons.

It would allow them to proclaim European dominance with a conviction they last possessed during Alfredo Di Stefano’s five consecutive wins of the late 1950s.

Zidane, 44, has already led his team to glory in La Liga, ending a five-year league title drought, as well as the …read more