Champions League: Real Madrid-Liverpool was the strangest final ever

That first Benzema goal

This doesn’t need much explaining how weird this goal was. For me, this wasn’t so much a mistake on Karius as it was a lucky, heads-up play by Karim Benzema. In professional soccer, you never see a striker stand that close in front of a keeper who is holding the ball. In the lower levels, you are taught to stand close to the keeper in case they whiff the kick or the throw.

https://twitter.com/FOXSports/status/1000467015654457345

I have played organized soccer my whole life. I have NEVER seen a goal like that and I have never scored a goal like that. Benzema just stuck his foot out while Karius was on auto-pilot and it went in. To see a goal like that is really, really strange.

A bicycle kick from a super-sub

Gareth Bale, one of the best players in the world, came on as a sub and scored the most ridiculous bicycle kick just two minutes after stepping on the pitch. I mean this thing was actually insane.

https://twitter.com/moradfutbol/status/1000765868299702274

Bicycle kicks in finals became a thing last year. Mario Mandzukic scored a phenomenal bicycle kick in last years Champions League final. That was the first time I had seen a bicycle kick in a final. Just a year before that, Xherdan Shaqiri scored a bicycle kick at Euro 2016 in the Round of 16. That was the first time I had seen a bicycle kick in a major competition.

They are becoming more commonplace in major competitions. That one combined with Benzema’s goal and the injuries is making this final weirder. We aren’t done yet.