How Dani Carvajal earned Player of the Match for 2024 UEFA Champions League final after scoring for Real Madrid vs. Borussia Dortmund

Real Madrid extended their record as the greatest team in the history of the UEFA Champions League as they won the 2024 final on June 1.

Second-half goals from Dani Carvajal and Vinicius Junior secured a 15th trophy for Los Blancos as Borussia Dortmund were once again left to rue missed chances at Wembley Stadium, just as they were against Bayern Munich back in 2013.

Madrid were second best in the first half but there is an air of inevitability around this team in this competition. As soon as Carvajal nodded in a corner from Toni Kroos, who was playing in his final club game before retirement, the Spanish champions took total control against a Dortmund side who suddenly looked defeated.

It was a particularly special moment for Madrid's long-serving full-back as it helped him to earn the Player of the Match award at the end of the game.

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How Dani Carvajal earned Player of the Match for 2024 UEFA Champions League final

Carvajal has played more than 400 competitive matches for Real Madrid and won 25 trophies in that time. No player in history has won more than the six Champions League titles he has achieved in his career.

And yet, for much of his time as first-choice right-back in the Spanish capital, the 32-year-old has sometimes been viewed as a target: a potentially suspect defender, who should be pinpointed as a weak spot by opposition attackers.

Maybe, at long last, such claims have been laid to rest.

Madrid have won six Champions Leagues in the past 11 years, and Carvajal has started every single one of those finals. He has faced David Villa, Koke, Antoine Griezmann, Alex Sandro, Andrew Robertson, Sadio Mane, Luis Diaz, and Karim Adeyemi. He's still standing.

His header to break the deadlock against Dortmund evoked memories of former captain Sergio Ramos in 2014: a perfectly timed jump and glancing contact on the ball, just when his team needed a hero. It also made him Madrid's oldest goalscorer in a Champions League final (at 32 years and 142 days old) and took him to six goals and six assists in all competitions, equal best in a single season in his career.

How fitting it was for a former youth team player to make the difference once more.

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Carvajal rejoined Madrid from Bayer Leverkusen back in 2013 after making a name for himself in the Bundesliga. The fee was in the region of €6.5 million, which surely makes him one of the best defensive signings in modern football history.

Leverkusen's sporting director at the time, Rudi Voller, said it had been only a matter of time until Madrid brought the player back to Spain because of his "outstanding performances". Over a decade on, perhaps more will acknowledge just how good he's been.

Most Champions League trophies by player

In winning the 2024 final, Carvajal joined Nacho, Luka Modric and Toni Kroos in becoming a six-time European champion. Alongisde the great Paco Gento, they are the only players in history who have reached that milestone.