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| Joselu celebrates after completing a brace which helped Real Madrid past Bayern Munich on Wednesday night to book a date in the Champions League final against Borussia Dortmund. (Photo credit: Sky Sports) |
There’s a reason they call them the football powerhouse, the Los Blancos proved again on Wednesday night that they’re the beast with the heat, call them a cheat or whatnot but, they don’t stop dancing until the end of the beat, Real Madrid is the real custodian of football heritage.
Bayern Munich thought they had planted their feet in the 2024 final of the UEFA Champions League, with a delightful strike by Alphonso Davies, the Canadian blasted one into the far corner midway into the second half of a tensed affair at the Santiago Bernabeu, under the lights but, it wasn’t to be.
Carlo Ancelotti threw everything he knew in the books into the game, making bold changes and asking deep questions of the Bavarians, it was a fairy tale ending as the rejected stone, Joselu came up with two late goals to hand Real Madrid the win.
It was end-to-end for the entirety of the game, with trickery and one-time shots testing both goalkeepers, strong defending and, smart tactics from both managers, it could have been a game of loads of goals on other days but, the goalkeepers said no.
Thomas Tuchel has been confirmed to be on his way out of Bayern Munich, his reigns will be remembered as the only one in over a decade and more that the Bavarians will end up with nothing at the end of the season.
Real Madrid was in danger of crashing out, Tuchel rang changes and brought on defenders to lock things up but, a rare mistake from Manuel Neuer handed the hosts a route back into the game before it went completely away from the German side.
Tuchel was however left furious at a decision to rule out a late Bayern Munich goal in the game for offside – "It was a disastrous decision from the linesman and the referee. It feels almost like a betrayal in the end because of that decision. It was a huge fight, we left everything on the pitch. We were almost there. Now we have to say congratulations to Real Madrid.
"The linesman said sorry ... The referee does not have to flag -- he sees that we win the second ball, he sees that we get a shot away," he added. "To whistle is a very, very bad decision. It's against the rules, and it's a bad decision for both of them. It's a disaster, tough to swallow, but it is the way it is."