No fairytale for Juventus, just the same old sad story

Everywhere one looked at full-time at the Millennium Stadium, there were people clad in black and white in floods of tears, on the pitch and in the stands.

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. The seventh time in nine European Cup finals. The fifth in a row.

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. Furthermore, Real were the defending champions, a side of superstars assembled at a cost of €638.2 million (€215.9m more than Juve).

However, the Bianconeri had supposedly learned from their surprise appearance in the 2015 final, a 3-1 loss to Barcelona in Berlin.

They had matured, they told us, and strengthened their squad in the interim, last summer's €90m signing of Gonzalo Higuain 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.

"The approach from Real was the same," Dani Alves mused, "The difference was we didn't defend as well as we usually do."