Super sub Joselu lifts Real Madrid past Bayern and into Champions League final

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Bayern Munich had subjected the Spanish champions to the sort of experience Real Madrid have done to so many. They dug in, they frustrated, they scored a crucial goal out of nothing amid favourable refereeing decisions. Real Madrid then threw it all in, including a supposed stand-in.

For someone that was supposed to be a mere stop-gap for Kylian Mbappe, Joselu is instead a new folk hero. He scored in the 88th and 92nd minutes to somehow turn the most typical 1-0 defeat into a victory that was atypical for a team that wins more than any other.

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