European Cups 2021/2022 - title winners and the top scorer winners

On Saturday, the final of the Champions League was played, which also meant the last match in the European Cups the season of 2021/2022. Here we go through the now three tournaments and their top scorers.

Champions League season 2021/2022

The final of the UEFA Champions League was played on Saturday night and the teams that had reached the final were Liverpool and Real Madrid. Liverpool had had a fairly comfortable journey to the final while Real Madrid had had a harder journey to the final, including beating Paris Saint-Germain in the round of 16 and Manchester City in the semi-finals. Against City, they completed one of the craziest comebacks in UCL's history, where they were down 5-3 in total when the match clock pointed at 90 minutes played, but they managed to turn it to a victory through three late goals.

Vinicius Júnior - only scorer in the match

Liverpool were favorites in the final and it was also they who were holding the baton through pretty much the entire match. But despite 24 shot attempts for Liverpool against Real Madrid only 4 attempts, it was Real who were the winners in the end. Vinicius Júnior has had something of a breakthrough season this season and therefore it was not surprising when it was, he who got to be the hero with his 1-0 in the 59th minute for Real. Despite several attempts to equalize, Liverpool failed to score against the brilliantly playing Thibaut Courtois, guarding Real's goal, and Real Madrid's 14th(!) Champions League title was a fact - congratulations to Real Madrid for the title in the world's biggest club tournament 2021/2022!

The top scorer list in UCL 2021/2022

Before the final it was already clear that Real Madrid's Karim Benzema would be the Golden Boot winner of UCL 2021/2022. Up to the final he had scored 15 goals in the tournament and the closest hunters were Robert Lewandowski on 13 goals and Ajax Sébastien Haller on 11 goals, but both players were out of the tournament. Benzema did not score any goals in the final though, which means that he finished with 15 goals. It is noteworthy that Benzema also won the top scorer title in La Liga this season, and thus won two best scorer titles as a 34-year-old. The last time he won a top scorer list before this season was in the 2007/2008 season when he became the Ligue 1 top scorer for Lyon.

Other interesting names in the final top scorer list are RB Leipzig Frenchman Christopher Nkunku who scored 7 goals (hot quarry among many clubs for next season) and the super-hot Uruguayan Darwin Núñez in Benfica, who scored 6 goals. In addition, we find Real Madrid's both 21-year-old Brazilian super talents Rodrygo (5 goals) and Vinicius Júnior (4 goals), who we mention here because of their importance for the outcome of the tournament. Rodrygo scored two of the goals when they turned the semi-final against Manchester City and Vinicius Júnior scored, as already mentioned, the only goal in the final.

Europa League season 2021/2022

This season we got to see a very unexpected winner of the UEFA Europa League as the German team Eintracht Frankfurt went all the way to the title in the tournament. There were few who expected that Eintracht Frankfurt would have anything to do with the final battle before the tournament started, but they managed to beat the Spanish teams Real Betis and Barcelona as well as the Premier League team West Ham on their road to the final. In the final, they met another of the big surprises in the tournament, namely the Scottish Glasgow team Rangers.

The final was a goalless story even after extra time and it had to be decided on penalties. As usual, a scapegoat is required in a penalty shootout and this time it was Rangers loan from Juventus Aaron Ramsey who got the dubious pleasure of taking that role. He missed Rangers' fourth penalty and when Rafael Borré scored Eintracht Frankfurt's fifth straight penalty it was decided - and of course we have to say congratulations to the champions Eintracht Frankfurt! This was the club's second European Cup title, the first title came in the 1979/1980 season when they won the UEFA Cup.

Final standings of the top scorer list in Europa League 2021/2022

Rangers did not get to win the Europa League but they can take comfort in the fact that they got a player who won the top scorer title instead. Rangers' Englishman James Tavernier scored 7 goals in total, which was enough to become the solo top scorer in the tournament. The Brazilian Galeno, who started the season playing in Braga but then transferred to Porto, and the Cameroonian Karl Toko Ekambi in Lyon shared in second place with 6 goals each.

The youngest player in the top scorer top 20 list was 19-year-old German talent Florian Wirtz in Bayer Leverkusen with 3 goals scored.

Europa Conference League season 2021/2022

UEFA's new tournament Europa Conference League was played this season for the first time. No European team with serious ambitions really wants to play in this league of course since it is the third-tier tournament, but it is after all a European title that is at stake and the difference in team quality compared to Europa League is in the name of honesty not so gigantic.

Nicolò Zaniolo in Roma

The final was played on Wednesday 25 May between two classic European teams - Dutch Feyenoord and Italian Roma. The final also was an interesting and exciting match where Roma's Nicolò Zaniolo became the only goal scorer when he scored the 1-0 goal in the 32nd minute. This was Roma's first European title since winning the UEFA Cup in 1991, and Mourinho now also added another European title to his impressive track record. Congratulations to Roma - Europa Conference League first winner!

Top scorer winner in the Europa Conference League 2021/2022

Just like Rangers who had to settle for having the top scorer in their team after the loss in the Europa League final, Feyenoord also had to settle for a Golden Boot winner after their loss. Belgian Cyriel Dessers scored 10 goals in the tournament in total, which was enough to salvage the title, closely followed by Roma's Englishman Tammy Abraham on 9 goals.