Postcard from Wembley – European football royalty crowned champions again

Eduardo Camavinga and Eder Militao of Real Madrid and teammates celebrate at full time following the team's victory during the UEFA Champions League 2023/24 Final match between Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid CF at Wembley Stadium

Eduardo Camavinga and Eder Militao of Real Madrid and teammates celebrate at full time following the team's victory during the UEFA Champions League 2023/24 Final match between Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid CF at Wembley Stadium Credit: Photo by Christopher Lee - UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images

Macdara Ferris reports from Wembley

With London such a large city, would the Champions League Final just get absorbed into one of the world’s biggest metropolises? No was the answer this past weekend as the fans of Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund swarmed the English capital.

The talk was of around 100,000 yellow and black Dortmund fans descending on the capital. It certainly seemed that way but this reporter was staying near Hyde Park where the fan zone for Dortmund fans was located.

The South Bank had the team lineup backdrops and the giant Champions League ball to be photographed with, while Trafalgar Square had been taken over for the Champions Festival with big screens, beer and, yes, a lot of Borussia Dortmund fans.

On Friday I attended the pre-match press conferences and enjoyed taking in some of the Irish interest on display on the walls around the media centre - from Bono singing at Live Aid to an Ireland lineout against Romania in the 2015 Rugby World Cup to jerseys from Irish senior internationals Declan Rice and under-21 international Jack Grealish!

The media area was so welcoming to travelling journalists from continental Europe that the plugs were all set up for the two pronged variety so I had to wander to a corner of the room to find a three pin plug.

The media were in town from across the world for this one with questions asked on the eve of the match not just from the assembled sizeable Spanish and German press cores but Mexico, Sudan, Greece and Croatian amongst many others posing questions to Carlo Ancelotti and Edin Terzić.

On match day walking down Wembley Way about three hours ahead of kick-off, the fans were already making their way to the stadium with an unbelievable amount of police in the area, supplemented by 2,500 stewards.

Thankfully there was to be no repeat of the chaotic scenes that had preceded the EURO 2020 final or the past two Champions League finals. 

The pre-match ‘highlights’ included Zinedine Zidane’s bright white trousers as he brought the 730mm tall and 7.5kg Champions League trophy out to the side of the pitch and Lenny Kravitz performing in the kick-off show (he was roundly booed by the BVB supporters).

When the kick-off did happen, the match was quickly stopped by a couple of ‘influencer’ pitch invaders but the game soon got on the way again.

Wembley Stadium is so large it has three press boxes. One on the south of the stadium and two on the north. I was one of 320 journalists in the media tribune and was able to pick out my seat in the press box online ahead of the game and had to weigh up whether to sit in the north-west section at the Real Madrid side of the stadium or south-east adjacent to the Dortmund support.

I chose to be close to the BVB supporters and while I didn’t get to see them celebrate a win (or even a goal), I was happy with my choice for the atmosphere that they generated to my left.



In Dublin the previous week we had seen and heard close at hand German football fans loudly support their team in a European final and like Bayer Leverkusen fans, the Borussia Dortmund supporters would do likewise and more but also see their team lose like Leverkusen had done in the Europa League final.

The drumming and singing was orchestrated by a dozen or so fans down the front of their support. They didn’t stop from 90 minutes before the kick-off right through the 90 minutes of the match bar the couple of minutes when their team conceded a second goal.

They had a massive early second half pyro display (with a massive UEFA fine now no doubt heading to North Rhine-Westphalia). Their tifo display read ‘AUG GEHT’S DORTMUND KAMPFE UND SIEGEN’ which translates as ‘Let’s go Dortmund, fight and win’

Every game has a local angle. There was Irish passport holder Jude Bellingham playing for Real.

For the Croatian journalist sitting beside me, he wanted Bellingham’s side to win as it would mean Dinamo Zagreb would move up into the Champions League play-off round (guaranteeing them Europa League group stages even if they fall at the first hurdle). 

A Real win would also mean Borac Banja Luka would be seeded in the Champions League first qualifying round and couldn’t be drawn with Shamrock Rovers. Also lurking in the draw is FK Panevezys where the Hoops played in 2012. Referee for that match against Ekranas was Slovenian whistler Slavko Vincic.

He has come a long way since officiating that game, as he was the referee for this Champions League final. 

There were a couple of interesting player head-to-heads on the pitch and it was Real Madrid who emerged victorious. German players Marco Reus and Toni Kroos had announced ahead of the match that this would be their final games for their respective clubs.

Kroos provided the assist for Real’s opener with Dani Carvajal heading home in the 74th minute. Similarly in the battle of the British players between Jude Bellingham and Jadon Sanco, honours went to the Real Madrid player. Bellingham provided the assist for Real’s second goal scored by Vinicius.

Carvajal picked up the player of the match award and Ancelotti a remarkable fifth winners medal as a manager to go with his two as a  player with Milan (Real Madrid post-match reaction).

It won’t be remembered as a classic Champions League Final but Dortmund certainly left their mark on the event. Ultimately though it was yet another notable chapter in Real Madrid’s dominance of the European Cup.

About Macdara Ferris

Macdara Ferris is a contributor since 2007 to Hoops Scene (Shamrock Rovers' match day programme) and is the co-author of two books on Shamrock Rovers - 'Tallaght Time: Shamrock Rovers 2009 to 2012' (with Karl … View Full Profile