Reading List: Barcelona crowned European champions once again

For the fifth time in club history, Barcelona are the kings of Europe.

Despite Juventus's best efforts, valiant as they were, the Spanish side was more than deserving of both their crown and the tributes that followed from many of the world's foremost football writers in the aftermath of a thrilling 3-1 victory Saturday evening in Berlin.

Read a sampling of the best below.

Writing for The Guardian, Sid Lowe described the moment that gave Barcelona the crown, and the manner in which the three men so often responsible for the club's success this season did it one last time.

Just when the rolling tide was black and white, when it was Juventus's players imploring their fans to raise the volume, as if they even needed asking, when the nerves were Barcelona's and the tension was rising, just moments after Leo Messi appeared to be struggling, the stride slow and the brow heavy, he was up and running again. Others ran with him. There was space now, for almost the first time, and off Messi went, heading at the defence. He shifted inside and took aim. Gigi Buffon dived to his left and pushed the shot away. And there was Luis Suarez ...

Messi had made it, Suarez had scored it: the 121st goal scored by Messi, Neymar or Suarez this season, the most effective attacking trio in Spanish football history, and the goal that would give Barcelona their fifth European Cup. The league and Copa del Rey winners now added the European Cup to complete a treble; "perfection," as Gerard Pique had put it. As the clock ticked down, they made sure. Neymar made it 122 goals for the "MSN" with the very last kick of the game. The trophy was Barcelona's. Another one.

Read Lowe's full column here.

Gabriele Marcotti discusses a thoroughly entertaining final, and pays tribute to Barcelona - a team, and a club, that have established themselves as the best in the world.

This is how - unless you have a rooting interest - you want your finals to be: exciting, open, both teams doing themselves proud, but also with a clear-cut finish and the most deserving team winning.

In Berlin, it was Barca, just as it has been over the course of the campaign. Or, for that matter, most of the past 11 years, a time frame that yielded seven Liga crowns, four Champions League titles and two Trebles. It may seem hard to believe today, but for much of the past half-century, Barca were the great underachievers: eight league titles and one European Cup between 1960 and 2004 tell their own story.

Now they are the gold standard.

Read Marcotti's full column here.

Of course, there was another team on the pitch Saturday inside the Olympiastadion, and Paolo Bandini looks at Gianluigi Buffon and his chance at destiny being denied.

The ease with which Barcelona were pulling defenders apart called to mind another, less happy, Italian final that Buffon, Pirlo and Barzagli all played in - the one they lost 4-0 to Spain at Euro 2012.

Perhaps that is the way this game would have gone had Buffon not thwarted Dani Alves with a brilliant one-handed save nine minutes later. Thirty-seven-year-old goalkeepers are not supposed to move with such agility but Buffon has rarely shown much interest in the expectations of others. He was the oldest player on the pitch on Saturday but is performing as well today as he ever has.

He is a man who believes in fate. "I think every one of us has a destiny," Buffon said four years ago. Our lives are not mapped out, he said, but, "I think destiny gives you signs and little shoves. And then it's up to you to interpret those and decide whether to follow a destiny or not."

Read Bandini's full column here.

James Horncastle of ESPN FC examines what is a very bright future, regardless of the loss, for the Italian club.

They return to Turin not with the cup, but with 100 million in TV and prize money. It's an amount they would have earned from Paul Pogba's sale, which means they don't have to sell the midfielder ...

Juventus' financial power isn't the only thing that has grown this year. Their attraction has too, particularly with their definitive re-establishment as a force in Europe. "Today Juventus' appeal is notable," general manager Beppe Marotta told Il Corriere della Sera. "There was a time when players like (Antonio) Di Natale turned us down. Today players come running."

Read Horncastle's full piece here.