They will now surely be eyeing up a club 15th and a personal fifth for Carlo Ancelotti. Borussia Dortmund are going to have to come up with something more than Bayern Munich, but Thomas Tuchel had seemed to get it right. This was the oddity of the game. Even his most bizarre decisions, such as taking off Harry Kane and Jamal Musiala at 1-0 up, didn’t really matter because Madrid rendered it irrelevant. Although these teams have played each other so often, and offer up so many trappings of European football we’re so familiar with, there was something very different about this game.
Real Madrid took the initiative in a way you don’t usually see in Europe. They were setting up so many chances, but also setting up a narrative – just not the one anyone was familiar with. It was almost straight away. Vinicius was just boring so many holes through the Bayern Munich defence. That created the space for Rodrygo to cause constant danger. There, however, Neuer was imperious. Although Madrid had tried to game Bayern with a throwin, catching out so many of their players with a throw further up the pitch when they thought the ball was in play, the goalkeeper was one player who was supremely alert. Neuer got the crucial touch to Vinicius Junior’s low drive to put it onto the post, and then immediately got up to block Rodrygo’s shot. There was so much more of that, as Madrid just kept coming.
Neuer was supreme — but not impregnable. As Madrid themselves know better than anyone, you can’t miss that many chances in a major Champions League game without gradually creating more and more risk. There had been danger from Bayern, too. Kane had almost put Leroy Sane and Serge Gnabry through on a few occasions. That threat was always there, but they couldn’t quite get the timing right. One threaded Kane ball required a thundering run back from Nacho. It seemed like Bayern had denied that crucial outlet when Gnabry had to go off injured. Alphonso Davies came on, a supreme player of course, but one who is usually much more forceful running from far deeper back.
Bayern were being pushed back that far. The big Rodrygo chance seemed the most extreme. It wasn’t quite that a goal was coming, though, but more that something was about to happen. Kane this time had the opening. He played a superb lofted pass for Davies to run onto. The Canadian still had so much to do, with Antonio Rudiger in front of him. He did it spectacularly. Davies just strode forward and then stepped to the side, before swerving a soaring shot into the far corner. Bayern erupted. It seemed to finally be going wrong for Real Madrid in this competition. It was only the prelude to something greater, something even more improbable. As the match ticked into the 88th minute, a ball was struck at Neuer. It’s usually the sort of effort he easily collects, but there always seems a risk to how he gathers the ball. Neuer this time spilled it like another German goalkeeper in Oliver Kahn in the 2002 World Cup final. There was Joselu, rather than Ronaldo.
Real Madrid may now celebrate him like the great Brazilian. He may go one further and win a Champions League. He won this game. On 92 minutes, as Rudiger turned the ball over, Joselu turned it in. Madrid had somehow done it again, in a way not even they had managed before.
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