How the world press reacted to Real Madrid's win: "King of the Cups"
The international media praised Real Madrid for their comeback in the Club World Cup final, avoiding an upset to beat Kashima Antlers: "This was another title won in the Madrid way."
L’Equipe (France) – ‘Real Madrid dominate the world’
"Real Madrid dominate the world after their victory in the final against the Kashima Antlers.”
“They won the Club World Cup after a dramatic win against Kashima Antlers. Cristiano Ronaldo bagged a hat-trick in a final in which Karim Benzema also scored. But the task was complicated for the Merengues. Having only qualified for the tournament as a host, the Japanese team posed a headache for the European champions."
"Benzema scored in the 9th minute his 171th goal as a Meringue, allowing him to match Emilio Butragueño as the ninth highest scorer in club history."
"Cristiano has lived a golden year 2016: winner of the Champions League with Madrid and the Euros with Portugal, the striker blessed Real Madrid again only six days after receiving his fourth Ballon d'Or….His footprint is left ever larger in the history of football."
La Gazzetta dello Sport (Italy) – ‘Real’s World, but what a struggle’
"CR7 leaves a hat-trick to knock down Kashima and put Los Blancos on top of the world."
"The referee pardoned Ramos for a second yellow, digging his hand in his pocket and changing his mind without the official intervention of the VAR."
"In extra time, the Ballon d’Or winner put his hands on the trophy by netting a double.”
Olé (Argentina) – ‘Here are the King of Cups!’
"With the acquisition of the Club World Cup, Real Madrid became the club with the most international titles won: with 23 trophies, they surpassed Barcelona (22) and also became the team with most Club World Cup triumphs (5).”
"Zizou is flying. He's a winner. He got his third title of the year, extended the run without a loss to 37 games, and also set a new record for the number of undefeated games at the start of a season.”
The Mirror (UK) - ‘Another title won in the Madrid way’
"For the richest club in the world, they don't like making life easy for themselves. This was another title won in the Madrid way."
"More than the beautiful football to which Barcelona like to attach themselves too, the essence of Madridismo is never giving up and a series of "remontadas" (comebacks) that have gone down in the club's history books."
"Victory over Kashima may not carry the weight of historic European nights against Atletico Madrid, Inter Milan and even Celtic in years gone by. However, there is nothing Real fans love more than seeing their multimillionaire Galacticos have to dig deep before roaring back to win and, for the third time in three finals this year, they needed extra-time to get the job done."