Real Madrid's Thibaut Courtois demands 'respect' after Champions League final heroics

Belgian goalkeeper named player of the match after producing nine saves to deny Liverpool

Real Madrid celebrate after beating Liverpool to win the Champions League final at the Stade de France in Paris on Saturday, May 29, 2022. Reuters

Real Madrid celebrate after beating Liverpool to win the Champions League final. Getty

Luka Modric kisses the trophy. Getty

Marcelo lifts the trophy for Real Madrid. Getty

Real Madrid's Vinicius Junior celebrates after scoring the only goal of the Champions League final against Liverpool. AP

Real Madrid players celebrate after their victory in Paris. Getty

Dejected Liverpool player Fabinho after the match. AP

Real manager Carlo Ancelotti celebrates after the match. Getty

Dejected Mohamed Salah of Liverpool after the match. Getty

Real Madrid players celebrate after the match. Getty

Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois celebrates winning the Champions League. Reuters

Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois saves from Liverpool attacker Mohamed Salah in the second half. Getty

Real Madrid's Vinicius Junior scores the opening goal. PA

Karim Benzema scores for Real Madrid late in the first half but the goal was ruled out by VAR for offside. PA

Liverpool's Mohamed Salah fires a shot past Real Madrid's Croatian midfielder Luka Modric. AFP

Liverpool midfielder Fabinho is shown a yellow card. AP

A first-half shot from Liverpool's Sadio Mane beats Real keeper Thibaut Courtois but hits the post. Getty

Real Madrid's Vinicius Junior celebrates with teammates after scoring. PA

Liverpool attacker Sadio Mane sees his shot hit the post. Getty

Vinicius Junior scores for Real Madrid. EPA

Real goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois catches a cross. AP

Vinicius Junior celebrates after scoring for Real Madrid. Getty

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp on the sidelines. EPA

Liverpool's Luis Diaz shoots at goal. Getty

Real attacker Karim Benzema scores but the goal was disallowed. Getty

Liverpool's Mohamed Salah sees a shot saved in the first half by Real goakeeper Thibaut Courtois. Getty

Real goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois makes a save from Mohamed Salah. Reuters

Liverpool full-back Trent Alexander-Arnold goes to cross the ball. Getty

Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti. AFP

Real goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois screams at his defence after Liverpool hit the post in the first half. PA

Real goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois under pressure from Liverpool's Jordan Henderson. EPA

Liverpool's Sadio Mane reacts to a challenge from Real midfielder Casemiro. EPA

Goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois has demanded his critics "put some respect on my name" after the Belgian delivered one of the great Champions League final performances to guide Real Madrid to a record-extending 14th European Cup.

Real beat Liverpool 1-0 inside the Stade de France, courtesy of Vinicius Junior'ss 59th-minute goal, but the Belgian's saves made the difference. Courtois produced nine saves in total, including six from Mohamed Salah alone, as Real managed to hold Liverpool's fearsome attack to a clean sheet.

"I needed to win a final for my career, to put some respect on my name," said Courtois, who won his first Champions League title having finished runner-up with Atletico Madrid in 2014.

"I'm really happy and proud of the performance of the team. We've beaten the best clubs in the world. (Manchester) City and Liverpool were unbelievable this season. Liverpool played a great game but we had one chance and we scored it.

"It's incredible, so many years, so much work. Come to the club of my life. I saw many criticising me. Today we have shown who is the King of Europe," he said. "I felt good the last few weeks. Once you make the first stop. Nobody could take away my desire to win the Champions League."

Of all the superb saves, Courtois picked out the stop on Sadio Mane, when he tipped a shot from the Senegalese forward onto the post, as the pick of the bunch.

"The most important was the save from Mane. I really had to use my two metres to get there and turn fast to get the rebound," he said after collecting his award for player of the match.

Courtois, 30, has enjoyed remarkable success in his career ever since winning the Belgian league in 2011 with Genk alongside a young Kevin De Bruyne.

Domestic titles have followed at Atletico, Chelsea and with Real, while he also won the Europa League in his time with the red and white half of Madrid. Yet his spell at Atletico also included an agonising defeat at the hands of Ancelotti's Real in the 2014 Champions League final.

Courtois was a regular for Chelsea for four years before returning to Spain to join Real in 2018, just after they had won the Champions League against Liverpool in Kyiv helped by two gifts from Loris Karius.

Keylor Navas was in the Real goal then but Courtois soon pushed out the Costa Rican to make the gloves at the Santiago Bernabeu his own. However, he stated after Saturday's final that he feels he does not get the respect he deserves back in England.

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"There was a magazine in England that didn't put me in the top 10 goalkeepers in the world. That is a lack of respect," he said. "I am not saying they have to put me number one but not to put me in the top 10 is strange.

"I twice won the Premier League in England with Chelsea and don't think I ever get recognised, and in my first season in Madrid a lot of people laughed at me but now here I am as a winner and it's a nice feeling."

Karim Benzema has received most of the attention after scoring 15 goals on Real's Champions League run, including 10 in a dramatic series of knockout wins over Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea, and Manchester City.

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Yet perhaps none of it would have been possible had Courtois not saved Lionel Messi's penalty in the first leg of the last-16 tie against PSG.

"Obviously that was an important moment also for me personally – you never know how the game would have gone had he scored," said Courtois.

"At the beginning of this season people didn't think we would win La Liga or even reach the semi-finals of the Champions League but we have and it is down to the work done by the coach. Now we need to rest well and come back strong again next season."

There was only one downside for Courtois - he missed his brother's wedding but promised to make up for his absence.