MADRID: After yet another magical night at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, Real Madrid is back in the Champions League final.
The 14-time European champion pulled off another thrilling comeback on Wednesday, rallying to defeat Bayern Munich 2-1 and reach the final for the second time in three seasons.
Like it happened so many times in 2022, Madrid needed some late drama to advance.
Joselu scored in the 88th minute and then in stoppage time as Madrid advanced 4-3 on aggregate to set up a final against Borussia Dortmund on June 1 in London.
“Well, it has happened again what has happened so many times before,” Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti said. “It’s inexplicable. Fans who push us on, a fantastic stadium, players who never stop believing — it’s simply something magical.”
Bayern had taken the lead on an Alphonso Davies goal in the 68th — and then deep in stoppage time thought it had equalized but hadn’t because of an offside call that Bayern coach Thomas Tuchel described as “disastrous” and “against the rules.”
Joselu’s first goal was a tap in after Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer spilled an easy save. The second was initially called off for offside but was eventually allowed after video review.
“You always dream of being part of moments like this,” the 34-year-old Joselu said. “Not even my best dreams were as good as this.”
It will be Madrid’s record-extending 18th European Cup final, and ninth in the Champions League era, also a record. Madrid beat Liverpool when it last made it to the final in 2022, a season marked by several late comebacks like that one it pulled off on Wednesday.
Madrid at the time pulled off thrilling comebacks at the Bernabeu against Manchester City in the semifinals, Chelsea in the quarterfinals and Paris Saint-Germain in the round of 16.
Six-time European champion Bayern was looking to return to the final for the first time since winning the competition in 2019-20. The loss meant there will be no rematch of the all-German final in 2013, when Bayern beat Dortmund to win its fifth European title.
“It hurts. It’ll take a while to recover, but on the one hand it’s a loss where we left it all out on the pitch,” Bayern coach Thomas Tuchel said. “Of course, it’s tough to accept. It’s part of reality. No regrets.”
Dortmund, the 1997 European champion, eliminated Paris Saint-Germain 2-0 on aggregate on Tuesday.
It was a mostly even match but Madrid created the most significant scoring chances. But it had not been able to get past what was a terrific performance by Neuer, who had made a series of difficult saves to keep Bayern in the match.
But the German international faltered in the final minutes, dropping an easy ball after a shot by Vinícius Júnior and allowing Joselu — who came off the bench in the 81st — to equalize from in front of the goal.
“Manu, who had been exceptional in saving us all night, made a mistake he wouldn’t make in another 100 years,” Tuchel said.
Neuer said “anyone who’s ever played football knows how I’m feeling right now.”
“That we’ve been knocked out in the closing stages, having led 1-0 until the 85th minute, it’s extremely bitter,” he said. “We’d taken one step to London, we saw ourselves in the final and now I’m lost for words.”
Joselu, a German-born striker, then gave Madrid the lead a minute into stoppage time after a cross by Madrid defender Antonio Rüdiger off the left side.
The linesman initially raised the flag for offside, and it took a few moments before Madrid players and the crowd at the Bernabeu could celebrate the winner.
Bayern loudly complained at the end after a goal by Matthijs de Ligt didn’t count because the referee blew the whistle for offside without letting the play be completed.
De Ligt said the linesman apologized to him, saying he “made a mistake” for raising the flag without letting the play continue.
Davies, who had entered the match in the 27th to replace the injured Serge Gnabry, had given Bayern the lead by beating Rüdiger in a one-on-one situation, cutting back toward the middle of the area before firing a right-footed shot into the far corner past Madrid goalkeeper Andriy Lunin.
Madrid thought it had equalized a couple of minutes later but the goal was called off after video review because of a foul by defender Nacho Fernández on Joshua Kimmich.

Paris, May 7, 2024 Agence France Presse: Mats Hummels headed in the only goal as Borussia Dortmund stunned Kylian Mbappe and Paris Saint-Germain in their Champions League semifinal second leg on Tuesday, winning 1-0 on the night and advancing 2-0 on aggregate to next month’s final at Wembley.
Hummels struck five minutes into the second half at the Parc des Princes and PSG were unable to muster a response, the home side all out of luck as they hit the woodwork four times in total.
Dortmund, who sit fifth in the German Bundesliga, were never expected to go so far and will be underdogs in the June 1 showpiece regardless of whether they face their old rivals Bayern Munich or Real Madrid, who meet on Wednesday.
It will be their first final since 2013 when, remarkably, the match was also played at Wembley and Jurgen Klopp’s Dortmund lost to Bayern.
Hummels played in that final and here, 11 years later, he was the hero as Dortmund built on the advantage given to them by Niclas Fuellkrug’s goal in the first leg.
“It’ll take us a bit of time to realize that, but we’re looking forward to it extremely,” Dortmund coach Edin Terzic told broadcaster Amazon Prime of getting to the final.
“We did it somehow, making it to London.”
The story of this semifinal, however, is as much about PSG’s failure in another crunch knockout tie in the competition.
They have still never won the trophy despite all the money invested by their Qatari owners since the 2011 takeover, and there will be no dream send-off for Mbappe.
He will leave when his contract expires after this season and had been hoping to play his last game for the club in the June 1 final.
Instead PSG will be left to reflect on how they failed to get their hands on the biggest trophy of all during Mbappe’s seven years at his hometown team.
“We were not clinical enough. They scored two goals, one from a corner and one from a long ball. We created lots more chances, many more than them, but we didn’t take them,” PSG captain Marquinhos told Canal Plus.
“We got so close and we wanted to get to the final. But we had to win tonight and be more clinical, and we were not.”
PSG’s last two semifinal appearances both came during the pandemic, meaning this was the first time they had hosted a match at this stage of a European competition with fans in 29 years, since losing to AC Milan in 1995.
Luis Enrique’s team had won 2-0 at home against Dortmund in the group stage and were safe in the knowledge that a repeat of that performance would be enough.
The PSG coach made one major selection decision, dropping Bradley Barcola and bringing in Portuguese striker Goncalo Ramos. That meant moving Mbappe from the middle onto the left wing.
Dortmund would have been bracing themselves for an onslaught from kick-off, but that did not transpire.
Mbappe took only seven minutes to produce his first attempt, yet his volley was easily saved by Dortmund goalkeeper Gregor Kobel.
The hosts had most of the possession but struggled to get Mbappe into the game, the France captain often looking isolated on the wing.
In fact it was Dortmund who had the best chance of the first half, when Karim Adeyemi led a counterattack before seeing his shot saved by Gianluigi Donnarumma.
It felt as though the hosts needed to change something or risk going out with a whimper.
They should have been ahead two minutes after the restart, when Ramos touched on a ball driven into the box by Mbappe, but Warren Zaire-Emery contrived to hit the post from close range.
That was to prove crucial as Dortmund struck moments later.
PSG cheaply conceded a corner, and Julian Brandt’s delivery from the Dortmund right was headed in by Hummels.
Ramos swept a shot over on the hour mark before Nuno Mendes became the second PSG player to strike the right-hand post, this time with a powerful shot from distance.
It was starting to look as if it would not be PSG’s night, and Luis Enrique realized he had to act as he sent on Barcola and Marco Asensio for Ramos and Fabian Ruiz, moving Mbappe through the middle.
Dortmund sent on an extra defender in the hulking Niklas Suele and they withstood everything PSG threw at them while also being helped by the frame of the goal.
Kobel turned Mbappe’s shot onto the bar on 86 minutes and Vitinha also rattled the woodwork but Dortmund hung on to book their date in London.