Zinedine Zidane and Ronaldo have created an alliance which has made Real Madrid unstoppable

As people waited in Cardiff on Saturday night for Zinedine Zidane to arrive at the post-match press conference to explain how easy it is to win European Cups, Florentino Perez was giving a radio interview anticipating another Champions League victory. “Now we move on to the next one, Real Madrid is like that,” he said.

Since they ended their 12-year wait for the tenth European Cup in 2014, Madrid have won the competition a further two times, a run of victories which marks them out as the dominant side of the era.

The long twelve years when their methods were ridiculed have been forgotten. The failed experiment with Jose Mourinho has been erased thanks to the three Champions League which came along once he left.

Juventus had gone into the game with many feeling they had the qualities that could trouble Madrid, especially after what they had done to Barcelona.

But Real Madrid are now like that, as Perez said, they are a winning machine, looking always towards the next victory, driven by a man who is always looking for the next goal. When the galactico model failed, people criticised the model. It turned out they just had the wrong galactico.

“I’ll go as far as I’m allowed to go,” Ronaldo said after the game and nobody would ever question how far that is.

He has rewritten football’s laws by making his ego as effective as all the talk of unity and team spirit. His desire for advancement remains the same and from this necessity, he is as creative as he can be.

His ruthlessness took care of Juve here on Saturday night, but he needs others around him to make him play, but also not to stifle him.

Zidane’s gift may simply be that he is so assured of himself and his place in the game that he feels no need to do anything except encourage the ruthless instincts of his most important player.

Toni Kroos and Luka Modric were hugely influential in undermining Juventus, but without that restless and relentless determination of Ronaldo to keep scoring goals, Max Allegri’s side might have believed they were still in the game for longer.

Instead, after a bright opening, they were behind and then, as they tried to come to terms with being behind again after the interval, Ronaldo scored his second and the European Cup was won again.