adminBAYERN Munich will never be European Champions under Pep Guardiola after Manchester City’s manager-in-waiting completed a hat-trick of semi-final defeats in this loss against Diego Simone’s phenomenal Atletico Madrid.
Three times Guardiola has taken the Germans to the last four and watched them fall against Spanish opponents. Last year it was Barcelona, the year before Real Madrid.
This time it was Simeone’s soldiers, who reach their second final in three years, who were just too strong.
Much was said about the clash of styles in the build-up to the game but this was more about substance than anything else and no team has more substance than Atletico.
They gave the defensive performance of their lives, and when they needed a goal Antoine Griezmann raced from the halfway line and coolly slotted the ball past Manuel Neuer, cancelling out Xabi Alonso’s first half free-kick.
Robert Lewandowski put Bayern 2-1 ahead on the night when he converted from close range after Arturo Vidal headed across the face of the goal but they needed to score twice.
Fernando Torres missed a penalty after he had been brought down by Javi Martinez but it didn’t matter.
El Nino is going to a European Cup final with the club he grew up supporting and Guardiola is coming to Manchester after three years of watching it on television.
“They were better than us in the second game but we did the job at home and got our away goal,” said goalscorer Griezmann.
He was right – Bayern had dominated but dominating this Atletico team and beating them are two very different things.
Atletico have averaged 25,5 per cent possession across in their last four Champions League games but with so little, they achieve so much.
The first half in Munich had been a continuation of the second half of the first leg in Madrid with Bayern battering Atletico’s defence and Simeone’s side somehow standing firm.
There were 13 Bayern shots in the first 20 minutes but with Diego Godin back marshalling the defence and goalkeeper Jan Oblak immense behind him there was no way through.
They are used to a different sort of yellow wall in Germany but the yellow-jerseyed keeper blocked Lewandowski at his near post on 20 minutes to keep out Bayern’s best early chance.
When the Bayern onslaught finally found a way past the Slovenian it was via a deflection from one of his own defenders.
Augusto Fernandez upended David Alaba on the edge of the area and from the free-kick Alonso’s shot hit the inside of Jose Gimenez’ knee and went past the Atletico keeper.
There was worse to come for the young Uruguayan centre-back when he dragged Martinez back in the penalty area and Turkish referee Cuneyt Cakir pointed to the spot.
Up stepped Muller but he failed to beat Oblak, who not only saved the spot-kick but sprang up to throw himself at Alonso’s attempt to turn-in the rebound.
Tempers were now beginning to flare and none more than Ribery’s.
He had already lost his head after the penalty and needed to be pulled away by team-mates from Atletico players.
After a Juanfran elbow downed Lewandoski there was a free-for-all in-front of the two benches and the Frenchman had Simeone of all people by the sleeves of his black coat.
Guardiola called for calm from his players. His team had done half the job by scoring once.
Atletico could surely not hold out under such pressure for another 45 minutes.
They could do better than that – they could score within 10 minutes of the restart.
Griezmann and Torres were partners in crime parked on the halfway line as the ball was played forward. The Frenchman touched it to Torres who released him just onside and he raced to the edge of the area and shot past Neuer. Bayern now needed to score twice.
Lewandowski headed in from close range but there was not a second, as Atletico came closest to troubling the scoreboard.
Torres was brought down by Martinez only to miss the penalty.
“That would have finished it early,” he said, “but it’s nice to win having suffered.”
It meant Atletico had to suffer until the last whistle but nobody is as good at that at Atletico Madrid.
They ran themselves into the ground. And Simeone seemed to take every step with them inside – and often outside – his technical area. Now they are off to Milan together. – DAILYMAIL
Online Reporter