Well, not quite over yet. Thoughts now turn to the second leg in Munich next Tuesday, where Bayern Munich will attempt to overturn a 1-0 deficit. Atletico travel to Germany with a lead thanks to a superb early goal from Saul Niguez and another intense defensive performance. They’ll back themselves to frustrate Bayern again. Bayern, who struggled tonight, will back themselves to work this lot out. I can’t wait. Thanks for reading and emailing. Night.
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Full-time: Atletico Madrid 1-0 Bayern Munich
It’s over!
90 min+3: Ribery swings the ball in from the left; it’s met with a glancing header by Benatia ... but he fails to make enough contact with his header and Oblak makes an easy save. Moments later, Lewandowski heads down for the onrushing Vidal, whose run hasn’t been tracked. The ball sits up invitingly but he hits it into the ground and straight at Oblak! That was Bayern’s best chance.
90 min+1: There will be four minutes of the added stuff.
90 min: Nothing comes from the corner. The seconds are ticking away.
89 min: Vidal is booked. It’s that sort of game now. Though Atletico have just won a corner on the right.
87 min: Costa crosses. Oblak catches. I think both sides have declared at 1-0.
85 min: Atletico bring on Partey for Saul.
84 min: Saul has been booked for something or other.
82 min: Benatia is booked for fouling Koke, who had played on after running the ball out of play, a moment to neatly encapsulate Bayern’s frustration. Neuer is also booked for getting involved. All the while, Simeone is threatening to self-combust on the touchline.
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80 min: Lewandowski can’t quite bring Muller’s cross under control, so he leaves it to Alaba, who whistles his shot over from 18 yards.
79 min: “Thiago actually seemed to receive a spanking from Guardiola,” says Ian Copestake. Naughty Pep junior!
78 min: With Bayern out of substitutions, there’ll be no appearance for Mario Gotze tonight. He scored the winning goal in the World Cup final!
77 min: Bayern make their final change, Bernat replaced by Mehdi Benatia. Guardiola must be concerned about Atletico’s threat on the break. Alaba will move to left-back.
75 min: Fernando Torres hits the post! Atletico mount a rare break and Torres locates some space on the right. He gloriously shimmies past Bernat and looks for the far corner with the outside of his right foot; his shot beats Neuer but clangs back off the inside of the post! The rebound falls to Koke on the edge of the area and his curling shot is saved by Neuer and Bayern survive. Torres should have scored.
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73 min: Atletico do not score here. Instead, Bayern almost score here, Vidal ramming a shot on target from 25 yards, Oblak flying to his right to beat it away.
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72 min: Bayern haplessly concede a corner on the right, Vidal and Neuer leaving the ball to each other, and then glaring at each other. There’ll be an inquest if Atletico score here.
71 min: A rare sight of goal for Bayern, Costa dashing on to a ball down the inside right channel, but the lob with the outside of his left foot drifts over. “Matt Loten’s praise of the man behind the whistle (65 min) surely sets up Clattenburg missing an offside call as super sub Thomas Müller bundles in the equalizer in the 4th minute of stoppage time,” says Peter Oh.
70 min: Muller replaces the invisible Thiago, who will now get a stern lecture from Guardiola.
69 min: Thomas Muller is getting ready.
68 min: I’m not saying that Atletico are an aggressive side or anything, but Juanfran just fouled one of his own team-mates.
65 min: “In the wake of a faintly ridiculous tumble by Giminez that could have sparked a fracas, can we all take a moment to appreciate the excellent job Mark Clattenberg is doing?” says Matt Loten. “Premier League refs haven’t had a great couple of weeks lately so it’s good to see one doing a cracking job on the big stage.”
64 min: Lewandowski near the right byline and arrows a cross-shot towards the far post. But no one is there for a tap-in and the angle was too acute for Lewandowski to score from there. Moments later, Franck Ribery replaces the disappointing Kingsley Coman.
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62 min: Alonso pings a diagonal ball to the right for Vidal, who heads it down for Lewandowski in the middle. Gimenez is there first again, though, and he wins a free-kick for Atletico, before reacting unnecessarily angrily to Lewandowski’s fairly innocuous challenge.
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60 min: Coman’s cross flashes across the face of goal and all the way to Costa, whose centre is headed away. The pressure is relentless now, though Bayern still haven’t had a clear sight of goal.
59 min: It’s all Bayern now. Coman dribbles into the area from the right, much like Saul in the first half, but his tame shot is deflected wide. Torres heads the corner away. “I watched a programme on ‘sporting maverick’ Maradona last night,” says Simon McMahon. “I know this is hardly news, but boy, what a player, and no shrinking violet either. If he played for this Atletico side they’d be the best ever.”
56 min: Costa’s cross is deflected behind for a corner on the left. Atletico haven’t been out of their half for a while. Costa whips in an outswinger and this time it’s a good delivery, met powerfully with a downward header by Martinez. But it’s a fine save from Oblak.
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54 min: Pass. Pass. Pass. Pass. Pass. Pass. Pass. Pass. Pass. Pass. Pass. Pass. Shot! David Alaba suddenly steps forward and crashes a left-footer off the face off the bar from 30 yards! The ball bounces to safety and that’s the closest Bayern have come to equalising. What an effort.
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51 min: Costa surges dangerously inside and almost prods the ball through to Lewandowski. But once again, an Atletico body is in the way.
49 min: Bayern have come out strongly at the start of the second half. Or is this just sterile domination? They’re monopolising possession but they lack incision.
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47 min: Bayern quickly win a corner off Savic on the right. Alonso drills it to the opposite side of the area. It’s headed back into the danger zone and a spot of head tennis ensues, before it’s headed wide by Vidal. “This is what is so frustrating about Atletico,” says Kevin. “They are capable of playing some wonderful stuff, but sometimes resort to time wasting, thuggery and incidents like what happened at the weekend. It’s such a shame.”
46 min: Here we go again, with Atletico kicking off the second half. There haven’t been any substitutions. “It might be just me, but are dribbled goals increasingly rare?” wonders Ian Copestake. “They are just the finest jewels of this sport but am amazed that Messi doesn’t do one every other week with his scampering and low centre of gravity, etc. Aguero too. But they still remain rare and beautiful events.”
Half-time: Atletico Madrid 1-0 Bayern Munich
Bayern Munich are being subjected to the full Atletico Madrid treatment and they’re really not enjoying themselves. A brilliant solo goal from Saul Niguez separates the sides and currently Bayern look like they could play all night without scoring. Pep Guardiola has some serious thinking to do.
45 min+1: There will be one minute of stoppage time. Simeone wants the whistle blown now. Eventually Bernat wallops a shot miles over. That should be that.
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45 min: Vidal tries to slip Lewandowski in on goal. Gimenez is there to cut it out.
44 min: Atletico show Bayern how it’s done with a couple of lovely interchanges down the left; the cross leads to a scramble at the near post and, in the end, a corner, from which nothing occurs.
42 min: Bayern simply do not look like scoring. They need Muller to scuff something horrible in.
41 min: The resulting free-kick from Koke is easily read by Neuer.
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40 min: The excellent Saul skedaddles up the right, leading Bayern a merry song and dance, and he’s eventually fouled by Costa, who’s shown a yellow card.
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39 min: Atletico are furious not to be awarded a free-kick after Gabi clashes with Vidal in the middle. There was nothing in it but an enraged Simeone is bouncing up and down on the touchline nonetheless, a man in a rare old funk with the referee.
38 min: Costa tricks his way past Saul, who brings him down on the left. Thiago’s free-kick is claimed by Oblak. A waste. Again.
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36 min: A shot, of sorts, from Vidal, who leans back and blasts the ball into orbit from 25 yards.
34 min: Bayern break after an Atletico free-kick and, for the first time, there’s space. Coman earns 0.00000000000000mm of space on the right and hammers a low ball into the six-yard box,but it’s straight at Oblak. “Most people were expecting a tactical chess match of a game,” says Andy Gordon. “Instead we have a game of draughts were one counter jumps over half of the opponent’s counters, scores and the two players then proceed to start hurling the counters at each other! Fantastic!!”
33 min: Play is stopped after Lewandowski, attempting to volley in Alonso’s pass, contrives to boot Gimenez in the face. He plays for Atletico, so he’ll live.
32 min: Atletico have had a tight leash on Lewandowksi so far. They’ve not given him an inch. He tries to shield the ball on the right, but two defenders hare after him and eventually win an Atletico throw. Lewandowksi has only scored in one of his past seven games.
30 min: All of a sudden, Griezmann is racing clean through on goal after a ball over the top. Yet Martinez just does enough pressure on him by leaning on his shoulder and Griezmann’s low shot is saved by Neuer’s feet at his near post. Nothing comes from the corner. The first 30 minutes have flown by. Are you exhausted? I’m exhausted.
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28 min: Bayern are beginning to exert some control. The game is increasingly being played in Atletico’s half. But how bothered are they? They can do this all day. Though here’s an opportunity. Lahm cleverly works some space on the edge of the area and asks for handball when his shot is blocked. Clattenburg isn’t interested.
Mark Clattenburg here channelling his very best David Brent at a Young Referee's Conference:#CelebrityRefs pic.twitter.com/uzzkx3jT4y
— Celebrity Refs (@CelebrityRefs) April 26, 2016
25 min: For a moment, it looked like Bayern had equalised - a roar even went up in the away end. But it quickly died. Costa tried to catch out Oblak at his near post by whipping a shot inside it with his left foot, with the goalkeeper waiting for a cross, and he nearly managed it. I don’t think Oblak was getting there, but Costa’s effort went into the side-netting, momentarily fooling the Bayern fans. They thought it was a goal*! Idiots!
*So did I.
24 min: Filipe Luis is caught in possession on the right touchline, allowing Vidal to nip in, and he concedes a free-kick with a trip on the Chilean.
23 min: Bayern look totally flummoxed at the moment. They don’t have a response yet.
21 min: Alonso, who became an unlikely hatchet man under Jose Mourinho, sends Filipe Luis flying. He’s lucky not to be booked. “I’m watching this sitting comfortably on my sofa and I’m exhausted already,” says Charles Antaki. “There ought to be a mandatory lull for the benefit of spectators, if not the players (who seem to have had a few pints of monkey gland extract tonight).”
20 min: A free-kick to Bayern on the left, a chance to put Atletico under some pressure in the air - but Alonso overcooks it and Oblak claims a simple catch.
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17 min: Alaba has a pop from, hmm, 35 yards. Nope. “By my estimation this game, after 15 minutes, is approximately one million billion times more entertaining than the entire 90 minutes of yesterday’s garbage show,” says JR in Illinois.
I’d rather watch someone throw up their entire dinner than subject myself to last night’s game again.
15 min: The brilliant Filipe Luis - how did he not make it at Chelsea? - goes on a power surge towards the Bayern area. This time, they stop him. But Atletico want more. I’ve just seen the goal again. A couple of stepovers from Saul and Alonso was very much left on his backside in the middle. Juan Bernat didn’t look too clever either. That is such a good goal, I could watch it all day, and then go slowly insane.
13 min: Play has to be stopped so that Vidal can get some treatment after taking a blow to the head. Coman cut in from the right and dinked one into the area. Vidal attacked it but Oblak was there first, punching ball and Chilean head. He should recover, but he’s feeling slightly groggy. Much like Bayern.
12 min: Bayern have looked rattled in the past 10 minutes, but they almost hit back straight away; the ball reaches Vidal at the far post and his header looks destined for the top corner, only for Gimenez to clear it from under his own bar! What a contest now!
WHAT A GOAL! Atletico Madrid 1-0 Bayern Munich (Saul Niguez, 11 min)
This is an absolutely astonishing goal from Saul Niguez and it’s exactly what Atletico deserve. This is one of the great European Cup goals; an amazing, jinking run from Saul, who followed it up with a cracking finish past one of the best goalkeepers in the world. The 21-year-old picked up possession around 30 yards out on the right and it seemed he had nowhere to go. But suddenly he was off, going this way and that, showing outstanding ball control, the thing stuck to his left foot - it was a little Ricky Villaish, as it goes. He beat a host of men, got into the area, shifted it to his left foot and, though he was faced by Alaba, he used him as a shield and curled it delicately into the far corner!
Photograph: Javier Soriano/AFP/Getty Images
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10 min: Are Atletico playing to the speedy beat of the drum in the crowd? They’re relentless, non-stop, a nightmare to play against.
8 min: Torres ambles down the right, in the kind of sprightly manner that Chelsea fans rarely saw from him, and dummies his way inside Bernat. From a position just inside the Bayern area, he mishits a shot straight at Neueur. Chelsea fans everywhere nod sagely.
7 min: Griezmann and Torres are both looking dangerous; they’ve both have shots blocked. Here’s another opening: Griezmann breaks round the back ... but the flag is up for offside as he sends an overhead kick over the bar.
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6 min: You’re not going to believe this, you might want to take a seat, but the pitch hasn’t been watered.
5 min: This is already an almighty scrap in midfield. Atletico are playing at a feverish tempo. They’re not sitting back!
4 min: Saul has started brightly for Atletico. First, he breaks down the byline, only to ruin his good work by scuffing his cross. Moments later, he gets the ball out of his feet and thwacks one towards goal from 25 yards. It moves viciously but Neuer is behind it all the way.
3 min: Surprisingly, the first foul comes from a Bayern player, Vidal catching Koke late.
2 min: Is the pattern being set already? Bayern are keeping the ball, Atletico are hounding them.
And, in a monstrous atmosphere, we are off! Bayern, in dark blue away kits, get the ball rolling, kicking from right to left in the first half.
Here come the teams! Huge roars of “Atleti! Atleti! Atleti!” greet them as they stride out. In this kind of atmosphere, it’s perhaps pertinent to point out that Guardiola teams don’t have the most convincing of records in away games in the knock-out stages.
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Did you know that Fernando Torres is back? Five goals in his last six. How did that happen?
“I’m a Fulham supporter and I’m still stinging from the Europa League loss to DIEGO FORLAN!” says Tony Campisi. “Anyways, how does Clattenburg get these assignments? Does he speak Spanish, German or Arturo Vidal? He’s got the FA Cup Final as well, but that’s a step down from this match.”
Remember the days when Fulham were capable of getting to the Europa League final?
The only other meeting between these two sides came in the 1974 final; and it ended in heartbreak for Atletico. Leading 1-0 thanks to a 114th minute goal from Luis Aragones, imagine the pain when Bayern scored a 120th minute equaliser through Hans-Georg Schwarzenbeck. The Germans went on to win the replay 4-0 against the deflated Spaniards two days later, with Gerd Muller scoring one of the great European Cup final goals, a beautiful lob over Miguel Reina. Atletico must have revenge on the mind, no matter what the say.
So, a huge blow for Atletico Madrid. Diego Godin, the rock of their defence, is out with an injury. Robert Lewandowski must be licking his chops after hearing that news - although it must be pointed out that Godin’s replacement, the former Manchester City centre-back Stefan Savic, has performed well this season.
As for Bayern, Thomas Muller has been named on the bench. Though he’ll probably still manage to score a goal without any of us even noticing he’s made it on to the pitch. He’s that dangerous. In his place is the exciting young French winger, Kingsley Coman, who made such a decisive impact in the stunning last 16 turnaround against Juventus. To think, but for Muller’s last-minute equaliser in that tie, the knives would have been out for Guardiola two months ago. Instead, history beckons.
The teams
Atletico Madrid: Oblak; Juanfran, Giménez, Savić, Filipe Luís; Gabi, Fernández, Saúl, Koke; Griezmann, Torres. Subs: Moya, Jesus Gamez, Lucas, Oliver, Thomas, Correa, Vietto.
Bayern Munich: Neuer; Lahm, Martinez, Alaba, Bernat; Alonso; Costa, Vidal, Thiago, Coman; Lewandowski. Subs: Ulreich, Kimmich, Tasci, Benatia, Ribery, Muller, Gotze.
Referee: Mark Clattenburg (Ingerlund).
Preamble
Hello and welcome to Pep Guardiola’s annual Champions League semi-final humiliation. Okay, maybe that’s an exaggeration. Sue me if you have to*. But the point sort of stands, because this stage of the competition has not been kind to the outgoing Bayern Munich manager in recent seasons. The highs of beating Chelsea and Real Madrid in 2009 and 2011 thanks to virtuoso performances from Tom Henning Ovrebo and Lionel Messi (two giants of the game) have been somewhat overshadowed by the lows of Barcelona’s defeat to Roberto Di Matteo’s Chelsea in 2012 and Bayern’s humiliations at the hands of Madrid in 2014 and Barca in 2015. Guardiola got his tactics badly wrong in the second leg against a counterattacking Madrid two years ago – for which he punished himself by wearing extra-tight trousers for the next fortnight, probably, allegedly - while last year he discovered what it is like to be on the receiving end of a Messi masterclass; not fun, in summary. As a two-time European champion, he is not exactly in dire need of a win against Atletico Madrid; but by the same token, his reputation at the highest level could do with a little refurbishing.
Guardiola is the most desirable manager in the game and everyone was casting envious glances at Manchester City once they confirmed that he will replace Manuel Pellegrini in the summer. Yet even the greats have to deal with doubts. We wonder if Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi are past it when they go four seconds without a goal, before they bounce back with double hat-tricks. Roger Federer has repeatedly been told to retire from tennis; at the age of 34, he’s still making grand slam finals (he’s also still losing them to Novak Djokovic, but that’s a debate for another day). So Guardiola is not alone.
He is, of course, too good, too inventive, too much of a visionary and an obsessive not to keep collecting trophies with as much relish as Titus Andromedon stocking up on his wardrobe of capes. Yet this is his last chance to bring the European Cup back to Bayern - and, lest we forget, they were champions of Europe when he replaced the treble-winning Jupp Heynckes three years ago. There was a logic behind Bayern’s decision: they were winners under Jupp, but they wanted to be loved under Pep. They wanted to be remembered. So far, though, Guardiola has not quite managed it. Bayern are the most complete side in Europe - but if this side is going to gain entry into the hall of fame, they’ll need to lift the European Cup at San Siro at 28 May.
One problem, though. Diego Simeone’s Atletico stand in their way. They’ve already put out Barcelona, beating the holders and favourites 3-2 on aggregate thanks to a stunningly display of discipline at one end and ruthlessness from Antoine Griezmann in attack, and absolutely no one takes them lightly any more. Atletico have conceded they don’t care if you’re not entertained. If they have to play for penalties, they will. Style is low down on their list of priorities, yet their commitment, aggression, tactical intelligence, defensive qualities make them engrossing to watch and they know how to play when it suits.
Make no mistake, this is the definitive clash of styles and it promises to be one of the most fascinating ties we’ve seen in a long time, with the Guardiola, the king of attacking football, pitched against Simeone, the defensive master. It is unlikely that anything definitive will be decided in tonight’s first leg at the Vicente Calderon, but so many questions come to mind. Can Bayern succeed where Messi, Suarez and Neymar failed? Will Guardiola be able to solve the puzzle? Should Bayern play direct football or possession football? Should they go down the wings or through the middle? Will Simeone come up with a plan to frustrate Guardiola? Will Atletico see enough of the ball to score the goals they’ll need? Should they sit back? Or is attack the best form of defence? And this is the final before the final, isn’t it? By the end of play next Tuesday, we’ll have some answers.
Kick-off: 7.45pm BST.
*Please don’t sue me, I really can’t afford it.
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