Bayern keep the ball but Real seize initiative

Real Madrid 1 Bayern Munich 0

Their failure to muster anything like the necessary intensity goes a long way to explaining why.

The defending champions only properly played for the final five minutes of the 90, and it led to Guardiola’s first ever defeat at the Bernabeu as a manager.

By contrast, Carlo Ancelotti can now properly dream of a third personal Champions League and a historic 10th for his club, but the lingering worry is whether they should be going to Munich with a 3-0 lead.

The Italian got his tactics absolutely right, but his forwards got some of their finishing wrong.

As it stands, Real are the only semi-finalist with a toe in Lisbon, and the final venue may see familiar old winners.

“We didn’t hand them possession, they are a great side. We’ll got to Munich humbly but with hope,” said Real defender Sergio Ramos.

The match very quickly fell into a familiar pattern: Bayern absolutely dominating possession and territory, the opposition forced to just sit deep and wait for opportunities. At one point in the first half, the possession stats read 90% to Guardiola’s team and 116 passes to 10.

From that, though, they suffered a familiar issue. Just as against Manchester United, that domination of play didn’t exactly lead to a great deal of chances. On 13 minutes, Arjen Robben forced a corner from a long-range effort. On 18, Toni Kroos had a volley blocked.

The moment immediately after that exposed an increasingly familiar problem for the defending European champions.

Because, if Danny Welbeck could stretch them on the break, the fear for Bayern was what kind of damage Karim Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo would be able to do — let alone the initially benched Gareth Bale.

It is one of the oddities of Guardiola’s side. For all their exquisite control of both the ball and space, they tend to give opposition sides a chance. They are certainly not as devastating as Guardiola’s Barcelona team, who should really have retained this trophy first, if not won it three or four times in a row.

Given those flaws, it would feel oddly out of place if it was this Bayern who removed the mystique of successfully defending the trophy for the first time since Arrigo Sacchi’s AC Milan in 1990.

Madrid stridently went about stripping away the Germans’ mystique here. They took one of those chances. From Kroos’s 18th-minute shot, Fabio Coentrao was released down to left to slide the ball swiftly across the box. Benzema buried it past Manuel Neuer.

That would have been the ultimate smash and grab, except for the fact the Germans themselves still struggled to catch Real on those counters.

Ancelotti’s side really should have been 3-0 up by half-time. On 20 minutes they sliced Bayern apart with the creation of one thrilling triangle of passes. Luka Modric found Benzema, he spotted Ronaldo free, but the Portuguese couldn’t hit the net. The reigning Ballon D’Or holder cut a frustrated figure, and did not look fit.

If Ronaldo was below the bar he has set, though, Angel Di Maria then put a better chance well over the bar.

It was a curiosity of the game. Bayern felt like the better team, but they were lucky to not have been blown away. In the second half, they continued to look flat. The likes of Pepe did do much to worsen that mood, mind, with some abrasive defending.

Yet, for all Bayern’s passes, they just couldn’t find the right one. It was still Real who looked most dangerous, with Ronaldo forcing Neuer into two stretched saves. Overly stretched himself, the Portuguese was eventually withdrawn for Bale.

Bayern finally seemed to realise they were a little too withdrawn themselves with too little time left. Thomas Muller had two sights of goal but could not stretch Iker Casillas with the first and was then denied by Xabi Alonso’s desperate lunge.

Bayern appealed for a penalty, Real pleaded for full-time. Guardiola will be pleading for a much improved display.

Bayern skipper Philipp Lahm was far from downbeat, saying: “We were missing that little bit of luck and that final something in attack...we have every chance of winning by a two-goal margin at home. I have a good feeling going to Munich.”