Bayern Munich’s Valiant Effort Falls Short vs Real Madrid

It was a tightly contested back and forth affair in the Santiago Bernabeu as Bayern Munich saw their effort to overcome a 2-1 deficit after the first leg come up short after a few controversial calls led to a total collapse late in extra time.

The match started off with Bayern asserting themselves well, creating a few chances early on but Real’s defense held firm and Bayern couldn’t solve it. Arturo Vidal picked up a very early yellow that would eventually come back to hurt him but other than that, and a few quality saves from Manuel Neuer, it was a relatively uneventful first half.

The second half started with Carlo Ancelotti opting not to use any of his subs at the break. The action picked up at the 50th minute as Real left back Marcelo headed an Arjen Robben shot right off the line to prevent an opening goal. Robben would have the last laugh as a minute later he drew a penalty that was converted by Robert Lewandowski to bring Bayern up 1-0. While there was clear contact on Robben during his run into the box, there is no doubt that he did some salesmanship to draw the call.

Real Madrid would answer back however. After subbing on Marco Asensio and Lucas Vazquez, both would combine to help Cristiano Ronaldo score on a diving header that went right under the outstretched arms of Manuel Neuer. Bayern were not done as less than a minute later they would answer right back with Thomas Muller and Robert Lewandowski combining to pressure Sergio Ramos into an ill advised back pass that Keylor Navas clearly was not ready for and it slipped in for an own goal.

With a 2-1 lead, everything was looking good for Bayern until the 83rd minute when a very dubious second yellow would see Arturo Vidal sent off and Bayern down to 10 men for the rest of the match. It would not be the only refereeing decision that would come under scrutiny.

Going into extra time, Bayern applied pressure to the Real defense but couldn’t break their back line. After the first break, the wheels came off for the Bavarians. Ronaldo would score the equalizing goal (and go ahead goal on aggregate) off a helper from Sergio Ramos, although after review, he was clearly offside. Despite the protestations from the Bayern players, the goal stood and Real never looked back scoring two more goals to go up 4-2 and make the scoreline look much worse than how closely contested this match actually was.

With the result, Bayern’s focus now turns to the DFB Pokal match up with Borussia Dortmund. Philipp Lahm and Xabi Alonso both see a bittersweet end to their long and storied Champions League careers.