Real Madrid advance to Champions League final in spectacular fashion once again

It’s just what Real Madrid do. In the 88th minute of their semifinal with Bayern Munich they seemed bound for defeat. Three minutes later they were off to Wembley.

Joselu, the Espanyol loanee once of Stoke City, is the latest addition to the annals of Madrid history, turning his first three touches off the bench into two goals that broke the resolve of visitors, who seemed to be holding on with grim determination after Alphonso Davies’ stunning opener.

Just when you thought Bayern had Real Madrid-ed Real Madrid, though, Carlo Ancelotti’s men struck back with unbelievable inevitability. It was a familiar script flipped somewhat. 

After all, for an hour it seemed that they would make it to their 18th Champions League final by sheer weight of quality rather than the mythic powers of their jersey. The goal might not have come, but Vinicius Junior was breezing past Joshua Kimmich at will, asking everything of the Bayern rearguard with his cutbacks. The Brazilian hit the post midway through the second half while Manuel Neuer, performing as well as he has at any stage in his 36 years, denied Rodrygo on the rebound.

The Madrid front two kept finding themselves denied by Neuer, whose best save saw him acrobatically palm a Vinicius shot to safety after Kimmich and Matthijs De Ligt had been left staring at shadows.

At the other end, Bayern’s semi-frequent breakaways were let down by clumsy final passes, but it only took one to pay off for them to claim the lead in the Santiago Bernabeu. That ground may be Davies home next season but he did little to ingratiate himself to Madrid supporters when he claimed Harry Kane’s pass and flew at Antonio Rudiger. The German responded in the way most defenders would, showing the Canadian onto his weaker right foot only to see that boot bend a quite superb shot beyond Andriy Lenin.

Within four minutes Madrid thought they were level when substitute Luka Modric worked a corner short to Federico Valverde, his shot cannoning through the penalty area, off Davies and into Neuer’s net. VAR quickly intervened, however, Nacho deemed to have shoved Kimmich in the face.

Tuchel responded to the ascendancy as he so often does, tightening things up and withdrawing Kane, Jamal Musiala and Leroy Sane in quick succession. Neuer had proven for 88 minutes that he could be trusted to hold Madrid at bay but Vinicius’ shot bounced awkwardly in front of him. He couldn’t hold on and Joselu pounced.

The pressure was far too much for Bayern to bear. It initially looked like Joselu had slipped offside to meet Rudiger’s cross along the six yard box but he had judged it to perfection, tapping in at close range. About the only criticism you could level at him was that he might have applied the coup de grâce too soon for purely narrative purposes.

Either way, Bayern knew the jig was up. Their first trophyless season in over a decade. Madrid will be overwhelming favorites to add the 15th European Cup to the Santiago Bernabeu…