The Lopetegui era at Real Madrid ends a 16-year unbeaten streak
Before last night, Real Madrid had won 13 international finals in a row since 2002 and their previous loss came to Boca Juniors in 2000
Real Madrid's new coach, Julen Lopetegui, didn't have the debut he was dreaming of. His team let the UEFA Super Cup escape from their grasp as they suffered a 4-2 extra time defeat to Atletico Madrid. This brought an end to their run of 13 consecutive international final victories.
Since losing the 2000 Intercontinental Cup to Boca Juniors in Tokyo (1-2), they haven't tasted defeat in any of their finals since 2002. This includes: five Champions League victories (Bayer Leverkusen, Atlético Madrid twice, Juventus and Liverpool), four UEFA Super Cups (Feyenoord, Sevilla twice and Manchester United), three Club World Cups (San Lorenzo de Almagro, Kayshima Antlers and Gremio de Porto Alegre) and one Intercontinental Cup (Olimpia de Asunción).
OTHER DEFEATS
Aside from that last defeat to Boca Juniors (2000), Real Madrid also lost the Intercontinental Cup final against Peñarol (1966), three Champions League finals (Benfica, 1962; Internacional, 1964 and Liverpool, 1981) and two other UEFA Super Cups (Chelsea, 1998 and Galatasaray, 2000). Real Madrid's defeat also means Barça lead the way with five UEFA Super Cups to Los Blancos' four.
revenge
This Wednesday, Atletico Madrid gained a small measure of revenge after losing two Champions League finals against their city rivals. The first defeat came in the 2013/14 season (4-1) after extra time and the second was in 2015/16 in a penalty shootout (5-3) after once again going to extra time with the score at 1-1 after 120 minutes. Three seasons later and Atletico finally got the better of Real Madrid to win the UEFA Super Cup.
