Juventus Champions League glory but they ended up losing their sixth of eight finals.                                           Sadly, there was to be "no happy ending to the fairy tale" for Buffon and Juventus, just the same old sad story.  This defeat hit hard, primarily because it was supposed to be different this time. Juventus were supposed to win this time. They didn't. They lost. Again.

Perhaps we shouldn't have been surprised by Real Madrid's 4-1 victory over the Bianconeri.

After all, the side with the worst record in European Cup finals had gone up against the side with the best record in European Cup finals.                                                                                                                  However, Juve had supposedly learned from their surprise appearance in the 2015 final, a 3-1 loss to Barcelona.

They had matured, they told us, and strengthened their squad in the interim, last summer's €90m signing of Gonzalo Higuain was viewed as a sign that now they could not only compete with Europe's elite on the field but off it too.

The signs were encouraging. Juve had reached the final undefeated, and having conceded just three goals in 12 games.

On a demoralising night in Cardiff, they shipped four in 90 minutes. It was probably the most jarring statistic on a shocking night for Juve.

They had started strongly, with Higuain testing Keylor Navas twice in the opening five minutes.

After being rocked by a classic Cristiano Ronaldo counter-punch 20 minutes in - Real's first shot on target - they responded wonderfully.