While I agree that both are great coaches, I think Max overcalculated that night by going all out in the first 30 mins, the team was gassed after that. We knew we had no bench, especially upfront, yet the team ran full-steam for those first 30 minutes anyways.
That could certainly be argued, but then we probably do get beaten outright. I think he wanted to build a lead and hold on, due to the lack of depth in the team that year, but then two of our best players, Dybala and Alves fucked around, ran into each other and lost the ball for the initial Ronaldo counterattack goal. Maybe we go up 1-0 or even 2-0 going into the break if things go as planned. They didn’t, unfortunately, and two of the most essential players for how we played that year picked up knocks and were shadows in the second half and we got overrun because of it.
Anyways, hindsight is 20/20. I think there is something to be said for having taken a more measured approach against such a strong Madrid side in the final, but I guess the idea was keep going with a good thing. We destroyed Barca and Monaco by overruning them from the opening whistle. Madrid was just too good to do that too, and a couple of key players didn’t show up to play for us.