It wasn't the first impression the Santiago Bernabeu had of Mariano Diaz. The home fans on Wednesday had already seen their most recent addition develop from their under-18 side to Real Madrid Castilla before featuring in the first team under Zinedine Zidane.

Those memories were peppered with nostalgia, given extra weight, and then a 21-goal season in Ligue 1 had given them a chance to miss him. On Wednesday against Roma, fans got to assess for themselves whether the dispatches from France they...

Everyone had gone except Gareth Bale. "Together, let's go," said Sergio Ramos, leading his team out the dressing room. But as they headed through the door, Bale sat there still, just him and a kit man gathering up a few things. Eventually, he stood, paused briefly, looked back and then broke into a gentle jog, the sound of his studs on the floor breaking the silence as he went out the room and into history.

When he came back in again an hour or so later, he had a Champions League winners medal...