A hat-trick for Cristiano Ronaldo, six goals overall, relentless drama, at the end of which it’s Real Madrid who join Atletico in the last four. But the real story tonight is that Bayern Munich have been done over by some awful officiating by Viktor Kassai and co. They were well on top when Arturo Vidal was incorrectly sent off near the end of normal time. Vidal’s dismissal was compounded by Ronaldo scoring two offside goals in extra-time. These things even themselves out over the course of a season, though, so Bayern will just have to get on with it, says every pub bore you’ve ever met. The truth is that Bayern have been robbed after doing so well to get themselves back in the tie. But Madrid march on, edging closer to retaining the trophy despite their obvious flaws. Thanks for reading and emailing. Night.
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Full-time: Real Madrid 4-2 Bayern Munich (6-3 agg)
Bayern have been robbed.
Worst thing about 3rd Ronaldo goal is that Spanish TV hasn't shown a replay that wd show whether offside. Either incompetent or biased.
— Jonathan Wilson (@jonawils) April 18, 2017
ET 26 min: “The Champions League has had way to many blatantly wrong decisions,” says Victor Hansson. “Suarez dive vs PSG would surely have resulted in a second yellow and Suarez leaving Camp Nou in shame instead of being celebrated for one of the best escapes ever. Now this. Casemiro can apparently commit whatever crime he fancys without being sent off, while Vidal walks for an action that probably does not warrent a free-kick. And then a blatant offside by Ronaldo after Lewandoski was wrongly deemed offside. We need videotechnology to compensate for sub-standard referees.”
This has been truly appalling, not least because Real Madrid are such an uninspiring team. Bayern should be allowed through on entertainment and moral grounds.
ET 23 min: Mateo Kovacic replaces Toni Kroos. Carlo Ancelotti’s eyebrow is threatening to leave this planet at the moment.
GOAL! Real Madrid 4-2 Bayern Munich (Asensio, 112 min; 6-3 agg)
Asensio scores a fine individual goal, dribbling this way and that, past the exhausted Hummels and to the right before stroking a composed finish into the bottom right corner. They’ve really shown Bayern here!
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GOAL! Real Madrid 3-2 Bayern Munich (Ronaldo, 109 min; 5-3 agg)
The irrepressible Marcelo creates the clincher with a stunning drive through the heart of the weary Bayern defence. He bursts through the middle, draws Neuer and rolls the ball to the right for Ronaldo, who’s probably offside as he completes his hat-trick.
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ET 18 min: Navas, under little pressure, looks very shaky under a corner. But no harm done.
ET 17 min: Casemiro shoots wide. “Offside & handball against a team unjustly reduced to 10 men,” Niall Mullen notes. “Good to see the little guy getting a break.”
ET 16 min: Real Madrid, the spawniest team in the world, get the final 15 minutes of this engrossing tie underway.
Half-time in extra-time: Real Madrid 2-2 Bayern Munich (4-3 agg)
“Was that handball as well as offside?” asks my colleague, Rob Smyth. I need to see it again, but would it surprise you?
GOAL! Real Madrid 2-2 Bayern Munich (Ronaldo, 105 min; 4-3 aggg)
This is another disgrace from the officials, who have been an utter shambles tonight. Ramos lifts a straight ball into the middle for Ronaldo, who’s about two yards offside. The flag stays down and Ronaldo turns before shooting past Neuer with his left foot.
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ET 11 min: Robben’s booked for giving the linesman an earful.
ET 10 min: Ronaldo almost latches on to a pass in the middle, but he can’t extend his legs long enough. He would have been in. Vazquez picks up possession on the right and pulls it back to Ronaldo, who slashes wide.
ET 9 min: Asensio digs a shot towards the bottom left corner from 15 yards. Neuer smartly pushes it wide.
ET 8 min: Casemiro barrels into the Bayern area and tumbles with Boateng nearby. Viktor Kassai rules no penalty, but decides not to show the midfielder a second yellow for a blatant dive. Bayern get on with the game. Robben steams up field, gliding away from his markers so beautifully, and he finds Costa, whose final ball is neither fish nor fowl. Kimmich was completely unmarked at the far post.
ET 7 min: Ronaldo lets fly from 25 yards. Neuer flies to his right to push it away. Real continue to pile on the pressure and Marcelo drives a shot into the six-yard box, where Ronaldo’s inched offside.
ET 5 min: Thiago whips in the corner, but Hummels fouls Ramos.
ET 4 min: Bayern have made a confident start to extra-time, though, and Costa wins a corner on the left.
ET 3 min: Having to take off Lewandowsi has done Bayern no favours at all. Muller doesn’t offer the same outlet.
ET 1 min: Bayern get extra-time underway. They did, of course, beat Real Madrid on penalties here in 2012. And here they are on the attack straight away, Robben menacing Real on the right. He wriggles into the area, but his shot’s blocked.
Full-time: Real Madrid 1-2 Bayern Munich (3-3 agg)
We will have extra-time. Real Madrid will fancy themselves agains the 10 men of Bayern Munich now.
90 min+4: Kroos sends the corner in, Ramos heads wide.
90 min+3: Asensio sends Marcelo haring away down the right. He beats Robben with a superb stepover and stabs a cross to the far post. Hummels heads behind for a corner to Real Madrid.
90 min+1: Luka Modric shoots over from 20 yards.
90 min: There will be four minutes of added time.
@JacobSteinberg Sergio Ramos own goal? That can only mean one thing: 93rd minute winner from the same player down at the other end.
— Juventitrè (@Juventitre) April 18, 2017
88 min: Bayern are forced into a defensive change, Joshua Kimmich on for Robert Lewandowski. The referee has ruined this game with a terrible decision.
86 min: Asensio shoots straight at Neuer from the right.
Red card for Arturo Vidal (Bayern Munich)
84 min: This is a poor decision. Vidal clearly wins the ball as he slides in to win the ball off Asensio, but Viktor Kassai sees differently and shows the Chilean, who missed a penalty in the first leg, a second yellow. Oh dear. Bayern will be livid when they see that back.
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83 min: Marcelo curls a cross towards the far post from the left. Vazquez arrives unmarked, but volleys into the side netting.
82 min: Robben chips a ball towards Muller, who pulls a volleyed cross into the middle. Lewandowski and Vidal can’t force it in. It’s scrambled away as far as Costa, who kerblammos one over from 25 yards.
80 min: Casemiro, already on a booking, is fortunate not to go for a foul on Robben on the right. He’s pushing it.
GOAL! Real Madrid 1-2 Bayern Munich (Ramos own goal, 78 min; 3-3 agg)
This is absurd! What a farce! Real Madrid’s lead lasted barely a minute and it’s been wiped out in astonishingly comical circumstances! A long punt into the Real area caused incredible mayhem. Muller and Lewandowski attempted to combine, but Nacho got in the way. The ball trundled off his feet, though, and hit Ramos’s shins. Navas didn’t know whether to come or go. Ramos stood still. Time stood still. The ball didn’t. The ball kept rolling. Away from Ramos. Past Navas. Into the net! We’re heading for extra-time!
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GOAL! Real Madrid 1-1 Bayern Munich (Ronaldo, 76 min; 3-2 agg)
What’s he done tonight? Not much. Other than score another decisive goal, that is. Casemiro finds space on the right and drifts an inviting ball to the far post. Ronaldo’s got the run on Lahm and he powerfully thuds a low header past Neuer. Bayern need a goal to force extra-time now.
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75 min: Mats Hummels scythes down Modric. He’s booked. That’s the cue for Bayern to bring on Thomas Muller for Xabi Alonso, who may well have just played his last ever Champions League match.
74 min: Robben floats a ball towards Lewandowski. He can’t bring it down. He would have been in.
73 min: Carvajal keeps running and running and running, until he’s on the edge of the Bayern area and there’s no option but to shoot. When he does, his effort’s blocked by a covering Bayern defender.
72 min: Robben and Lahm were threatening to run riot down the Bayern right for a while, but the introduction of Asensio seems to have closed down that avenue for the time being.
71 min: Douglas Costa replaces Franck Ribery. Lucas Vazquez replaces Isco.
70 min: Xabi Alonso’s booked for a foul on Isco.
69 min: Lewandowski barges his way into the area, causing a couple of Real defenders to fall over each other, and the ball almost runs to Ribery. But not quite. Navas bravely smothers the danger.
67 min: It’s nervy inside the Bernabeu.
64 min: Marco Asensio replaces Karim Benzema. Alvaro Morata will have to wait.
63 min: Thiago shoots from 25 yards. Over. Alvaro Morata is getting ready to come on.
62 min: Lahm, who’s causing all sorts of problems down the right, mainly because of Real’s lack of width, beats Marcelo and sends in another cross. It drops to Alaba after a spot of head tennis, but his effort’s closed down.
61 min: Ronaldo heads Alonso’s corner clear. On the right, Robben isolates Marcelo and lifts a cross to the far post. Lewandowski attacks it, but fouls Nacho, who won the header anyway.
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60 min: Ribery has a go from 30 yards. Deflection. Corner.
59 min: It’s all set up for Real Madrid to beat Atletico Madrid in the final in agonising circumstances again.
57 min: Robben feeds Lahm on the right. His hanging cross reaches Ribery, whose awkward volley’s saved by Navas.
55 min: Marcelo, who’s been everywhere tonight, flashes a brilliant ball across the face of the Bayern goal. It only needed a touch. What a second half we’ve got on our hands now.
54 min: Robben schemes down the right flank, cutting inside on to his left foot and dinking a ball into the six-yard box. Vidal throws himself at it and hooks over the bar on the stretch! Real are all over the place.
GOAL! Real Madrid 0-1 Bayern Munich (Lewandowski pen, 53 min; 2-2 on agg, Real Madrid lead on away goals)
Robert Lewandowski shows Arturo Vidal how it’s done, casually sending Keylor Navas the wrong way! Real Madrid are ahead on away goals, but one goal for Bayern will do it now!
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PENALTY TO BAYERN MUNICH!
52 min: Arjen Robben runs into the Real Madrid area on the left and dribbles around Casmeiro, who naively hangs out a leg and brings the winger down! The referee points to the spot and Bayern have a wonderful chance to give themselves hope!
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51 min: Bayern turn up in attack for the first time since the restart, Alaba reaching the byline on the left and pulling it back to Robben, all on his own, six yards out. The ball’s just behind him, though, and he almost seems to stumble as he pulls it goalwards with his left foot. His chipped shot wrongfoots Navas and it’s heading in, only for Marcelo to run across and head off the line!
50 min: Kroos’s outswinger’s headed away by Boateng, as far as Isco, who chests down and shoots just wide from 20 yards.
49 min: Ronaldo delicately flicks the free-kick into the middle. It’s headed over by Lahm for a corner. Isco swings it in. Hummels heads behind. Another corner.
48 min: Vidal, already on a booking, catches Casemiro on the right corner of the Bayern area. Casemiro does his very best to get Vidal sent off, rolling around theatrically, but a free-kick is the most he’s getting.
46 min: Real Madrid get the second half underway.
This looks less than fun.
Kicking off in the Bayern end, police batoning with abandon. pic.twitter.com/p9keH7DdsO
— Rik Sharma (@riksharma_) April 18, 2017
Half-time: Real Madrid 0-0 Bayern Munich (2-1 agg)
An entertaining half draws to a close. Bayern have 45 minutes to score two goals, else they’re out of the Champions League. They’ve had their chances, most of them in the first 20 minutes, but they look exceedingly vulnerable at the back.
45 min: Carvajal’s cross is cleared only as far as Kroos. He shoots too near Neuer from 18 yards.
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43 min: Real are finding it increasingly straightforward to break through the middle, where Xabi Alonso is offering predictably minimal resistance as the white shirts pile forward, and here comes Marcelo, raging forward. The left-back slips a pass through to Ronaldo on the left of the area. But he’s profligate again, shooting wildly over. Up the other end, Lewandowski breaks clear down the left, but he lacks support and conviction, eventually shooting without much belief. Navas gathers his deflected effort.
41 min: A free-kick to Bayern around 35 yards from goal, Casemiro giving it away for a foul on Vidal. He’s been pushing it for a while, having cynically fouled Robben not long ago, and he’s finally booked. Now for the free-kick. It’s miles out and Alaba’s wobbling effort sails miles over.
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38 min: Marcelo pops up in a deep position on the left and his pass inside to Kroos finds the German completely unmarked inside Bayern’s area. He looks certain to open the scoring area and he looks utterly convinced he’s about to do so as he attempts to pass the ball into the bottom right corner. But he’s reckoned without Mats Hummels, his international team-mate, who denies him with a stunning last-ditch block.
36 min: Bayern ping the ball around in Real’s half for a while, but they’re never really going anywhere. It’s all a bit aimless, this move, and Thiago inevitably loses it. Modric shows far more incisiveness, instantly spraying a defence splitting pass down the line for Ronaldo, who’s away down the right. Boateng gives chase, but Ronaldo steams into the area and has Benzema up in support on the left. Will he pass? Nope! From a tight angle, he shoots straight at Neuer. Benzema is displeased and Bayern dust themselves down and launch a counter of their own. Lewandowski, Robben and Vidal all threaten. None of them can get a shot away. Eventually Alaba wins a corner. Real deal with it.
34 min: More nonsense from Bayern at the back, Alaba struggling to clear his lines, and Benzema tees up Kroos. The midfielder leans back, though, and sends his 18-yarder over.
33 min: Bayern could do with Real getting Gabriel Paulista on here. “Surely, if Robben and Ronaldo reminisce about anything, it’s surely the 2006 World Cup’s Battle of Nuremberg,” says Kari Tulinius. “One of the most farcically entertaining international games of this century.”
30 min: Ribery scampers up the left flank and he’s manhandled by Carvajal. He’s not getting by. Free-kick to Bayern. Alonso’s delivery is inept. Real have a free-kick anyway, the officials spotting some infringement or other in the area. Up the other end, Bayern almost give away a farcical goal as they faff around with the ball at the back, but Benzema can’t quite get his touch in order, and the ball trickles away for a goal-kick.
28 min: Carvajal, increasingly influential on the right, knocks a cross into the six-yard box. Manuel Neuer should gather it comfortably enough. But he spills it, pushing the ball out to Ramos. The Bayern goalkeeper’s stranded here, but Ramos scuffs his shot and Boateng clears off the line! From there, Bayern counter and Robben wins a corner on the right. This is breathless end-to-end stuff.
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26 min: Real Madrid are growing into this now and sloppiness is creeping into Bayern’s game, with Alonso particularly culpable. He gives the ball away and the hosts counter, Benzema leading the charge. He skips past one challenge and finds Ronaldo, who rolls it to Carvajal on the right. The right-back gets the ball out of his feet and lets fly from 25 yards, a swerving shot that’s destined for the bottom far corner until Manuel Neuer intervenes, tipping it wide. Not that the officials have seen the save. They’ve given a goal-kick, much to Carvajal’s disbelief.
23 min: Moreover, you get the feeling they can score with every attack. Marcelo whips in a cross from the left and Benzema rises highest, only to head wide. He might have done better. He was more or less unchallenged.
22 min: In a way, it’s impressive that a team with Kroos and Modric in midfield can play with such a lack of control. This is the point I was making earlier. What are Real Madrid about? And yet somehow it hasn’t fallen apart.
20 min: Lahm and Alaba both have chances to swing crosses into the Real Madrid area. Neither Bayern full-back can pick out Lewandowski.
19 min: Do you reckon Robben and Ronaldo reminisce about Euro 2004 when they face each other? Or maybe they swap Mourinho tales.
16 min: Real are making a few too many errors in midfield at the moment and another loose pass presents Thiago with a wonderful chance to send Robben through on goal. There’s only one home defender back and he’s outnumbered, but Thiago wastes the opportunity, an overhit pass allowing Navas to steam out of goal and boot clear. Moments later, Ribery nutmegs Modric on the left, rather superbly, but he can’t get a shot away.
15 min: Real show up in attack for the first time in a while, Marcelo driving past Lahm and fizzing a low ball into the middle. Hummels shakily diverts it over for a corner. Kroos, the Bayern old boy, curls it in from the left, but it’s headed away for a throw on the right.
13 min: It’s all Bayern. Real can’t live with them at the moment. Lahm sends Robben scampering into the area. He wins another corner. Bayern take it short and continue to probe. Eventually Vidal has a dig from 25 yards. Too high.
11 min: Ribery sprays a glorious pass over Ramos, looking for Lewandowski. He’s onside and he takes it down brilliantly, holds the ball up and wins a corner. Madrid get it away. But Bayern are looking very dangerous.
9 min: Bayern make hay down the left, Alaba slipping a pass inside to Ribery, who’s clear in the area. Ribery rolls a ball into the six-yard box for Thiago, who looks certain to score, only for Marcelo to throw himself in the way of the Spaniard’s effort, blocking it with his back! The danger’s not over yet, though. The ball spins to the right for Robben, who waits for it drop as Navas closes him down, before bouncing a shot into the side netting! What an escape for the hosts!
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8 min: After a decent spell of Bayern possession, Lahm hoicks a cross into the middle from the right. Lewandowski heads harmlessly wide.
6 min: The free-kick’s five or 10 yards to the right of the D. Toni Kroos stands over it. But you know he’s not going to take it. He moves aside for Ronaldo, but his effort is straight into the wall. Bayern survive, but it was such a foolish challenge from Vidal. Isco was surrounded by many red shirts.
5 min: Isco plays a one-two with Carvajal and gets away from Vidal, who goes to ground and brings the Spaniard down from behind on the edge of the area. Vidal’s booked. He’ll be suspended for the next match if Bayern go through.
3 min: Xabi Alonso, facing his own goal, dithers in the middle of Bayern’s half, allowing Isco to nip in and snatch possession off him. He moves it to Ronaldo on the left, but a heavy touch allows Hummels to make a vital challenge. Up the other end, Robben cuts inside and ... shoots. A deflection earns Bayern their first corner. It comes to nothing.
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2 min: Ribery scampers through the middle and finds Alaba on the left. His cross is nodded down by Lewandowski, but Navas gathers the loose ball.
And we’re off! Bayern, all in red and kicking from right to left in the first half, get the ball rolling. They immediately pump the ball forward, a positive start, but Madrid comfortably deal with those route-one tactics.
The Real Madrid players who are a booking away from a ban are Sergio Rasmos, Toni Kroos and Luka Modric. The Bayern players are Jerome Boateng and Arturo Vidal.
Here come the teams! The Bernabeu is packed to the rafters. As you’d expect, there’s a proper sense of occasion here.
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“Thomas Muller: the most finished player at a big club that’s not being called on it currently?” says Christopher Flaherty. “He looks so leggy these days and hasn’t done many goals. Bad sign for a player whose game is based on constant movement.”
Real Madrid are without Gareth Bale, who limped out of the first leg with a calf strain. Isco, who scored twice in the weekend win over Sporting Gijon, starts instead of the Welshman.
Bayern Munich make two changes to their team from last week. Mats Hummels is fit enough to return in place of the suspended Javi Martinez at the back and Robert Lewandowski, who scored four against these opponents for Borussia Dortmund in 2012, has recovered from a shoulder injury, so Thomas Muller drops to the bench.
Team news
Real Madrid: Navas; Carvajal, Ramos, Nacho, Marcelo; Casemiro, Modric, Kroos; Isco; Ronaldo, Benzema. Subs: Casilla, Kovacic, Lucas Vazquez, Asensio, Danilo, James Rodriguez, Morata.
Bayern Munich: Neuer; Lahm, Hummels, Boateng, Alaba; Alonso, Vidal, Thiago; Robben, Lewandowski, Ribery. Subs: Ulreich, Bernat, Kimmich, Muller, Costa, Rafinha, Coman.
Referee: Viktor Kassai (Hungary).
Preamble
Hello. For some teams, winning isn’t everything. For some teams, not winning simply makes them an even better story. Think of Hungary in 1954, Holland in 1974, Brazil in 1982 and England in 2016. They won a lot along the way, but they didn’t win enough and they didn’t win the matches that mattered, and in the end that made them losers - if you think winning is everything. If you don’t, then those teams will hold a special place in your heart because they made football fun to watch, which is more or less the reason we’re all here in the first place. It is, after all, only a game.
But no one seems to have told Real Madrid. You get the sense that they’d regard that kind of loser talk as the doomed, pathetic witterings of a hopeless, foolish dreamer at the Bernabeu, where the guiding ethos very much is about the accumulation of trophies. Forget about trying to redefine the game, seems to be the message coming from the Spanish capital, there’s no point trying to beat Barcelona at their own game; let’s beat them and the rest at our own. The philosophy doesn’t matter - winning does. They might be the champions of Europe and they might be top of La Liga, they might have Sergio Ramos, Luka Modric, Toni Kroos and Karim Benzema and They have Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo and so many talented players that James Rodriguez barely gets a game any more, and their manager might be The Zinedine Zidane, but as long as they win, they don’t really care if they leave you or me cold.
It can make them hard to warm to, that sense that they aren’t quite as committed to setting the pulse racing as Barcelona are, and that cold focus on victory does have the effect of making them one of the more inscrutable top sides of the past few years. Working them out isn’t easy. Are they actually good? The answer is obviously yes. But are they good? Are they good in the way Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona were good? Are they good in the way they were around the turn of the century? If not, do they even care? And should we care if they don’t? Should we care if it often looks like they don’t know what they’re doing? Does Zidane? Do the players? Or are they just lucky to possess more individual talent than almost anyone else?
Just what is there to admire about the European champions? It’s a provocative question. A bit of a stupid one, too. One thing to admire about the European champions is that they’re, er, the European champions. They might still be the European champions come the end of the season, not to mention the champions of Spain, and that’s because they’re bloody hard to beat. Few teams are as dangerous as this lot when they’re chasing a game.
It happened on the weekend, when they fought back from 2-1 down to win at Sporting Gijon in the last minute, and it happened in Munich last Wednesday. Indebted to Arturo Vidal for Jaap Stamming a penalty that would have given Bayern Munich a 2-0 lead at half-time, Madrid took control of the tie in the second half. Cristiano Ronaldo didn’t do much, but he scored twice and got Javi Martinez sent off. Job done.
Well, almost. Madrid are the hot favourites to go through after winning 2-1 in Germany. Bayern have it all to do and the weight of history is against them: in 61 years and eight months, only six teams have reached the next round after losing the first leg of a European Cup tie at home. The good news for Bayern is that they should have Robert Lewandowski back from injury and he usually gives Madrid the heebie-jeebies. All is not lost for Carlo Ancelotti’s side, who certainly have the attack to make it a nervy night at the Bernabeu. They’re capable of scoring twice and we could be in for a classic if the Germans get the first goal. Then they’ll face the unenviable task of keeping their foot on Madrid’s throat.
Kick-off: 7.45pm BST.
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