Good things apparently always come in threes at Santiago Bernabeu as Ballon d'Or 2018 winner Luka Modric inspired Real Madrid to their third straight Club World Cup championship with a 4-1 win over Adbu Dhabi minnows Al Ain.
Modric scored the opening goal on 14 minutes at Zayed Sports City Stadium on Saturday to ensure this was one final he ended up on the winning side, after the Croatian captain suffered heartbreak in the World Cup final against France in the summer. However, Modric does have more of a knack of winning titles with his club side.
Real qualified for the Club World Cup by virtue of winning their third straight UEFA Champions League title against Liverpool in Kiev, and eased their way to a third straight title in Abu Dhabi, after winning in 2017 in the same venue and in 2016 in Japan.
Modric's was the only goal of the first half; Marcos Llorente doubled the lead on the hour mark and everybody's favorite football super villain, Sergio Ramos, made it three on 78 minutes.
Al Ain did pull one back with 5 minutes to go through Tsukasa Shiotani, before putting one through their own net in the first minute of stoppage time. The win is Madrid's fourth overall, having also won in 2014, making it a record haul for the Spanish club.
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