Visitors survive late bombardment to reach Wembley final
Los Blancos nearly pulled off the impossible with two goals in
the last 10 minutes, but their comeback came too late to change the
course of the tie as BVB progressed.
Borussia Dortmund will contest the 2012-13 Champions League final after edging past Real Madrid despite a 2-0 defeat in their semi-final second leg at the Bernabeu on Tuesday.
The
Bundesliga side survived an early onslaught by Jose Mourinho's men to
hold onto their 4-1 first-leg advantage for most of the game – and had
several chances to make the aggregate score even more humiliating for
the wasteful hosts.
However, goals from Karim Benzema and Sergio
Ramos in the last 10 minutes suddenly set up the most frantic of
finishes, but Dortmund hung on to clinch their first final berth since
1997, when they defeated Juventus 3-1 to win the trophy.
Angel Di
Maria, benched for the first leg, started for the hosts, while
Cristiano Ronaldo also returned after he was rested with a thigh
complaint for the Madrid derby victory over the weekend.
Dortmund’s
line-up picked itself, with Jurgen Klopp restoring the likes of Marco
Reus and Ilkay Gundogan after resting his regulars during Saturday’s
Bundesliga win over Fortuna Dusseldorf.
Mourinho’s men knew the
magnitude of the task at hand, and their start to the match was suitably
relentless. Gonzalo Higuain could have opened the scoring four minutes
in, but his shot from Mesut Ozil’s pass was right at Roman Weidenfeller.
Madrid
sent a series of warnings Dortmund’s way, but the Germans showed a
glimpse of what they were capable of when Gundogan’s clip found Robert
Lewandowski completely unmarked for a half-volley right at Diego Lopez.
However,
Ronaldo immediately mirrored the chance at the other end, forcing
Weidenfeller into a close range block, before Mesut Ozil somehow dragged
wide when put clean through.
The visitors were then handed a
huge blow just before the quarter hour mark, when Mario Gotze limped off
clutching his hamstring and was replaced by Kevin Grosskreutz.
There
was enough action in the first 15 minutes to fill an entire half of
football, but after weathering the initial storm, Dortmund regained
their composure and slowed things down – exactly what Madrid did not
want.
In fact, the remainder of the half was rather monotonous by comparison, leaving Mourinho with plenty to ponder over the break.
But
Madrid’s half-time plans were almost wrecked minutes after the restart,
had Lewandowski kept his cool when Grosskreutz cleverly found him
unmarked inside the box, instead of blasting the ball into orbit.
The
Pole nearly made instant amends when latching onto Reus’ slipped pass,
sprinting in behind and lashing at goal, but the ball cannoned off the
underside of the bar.
There was only one side that looked like
scoring and it was not the team that needed three goals to progress. The
quietly impressive Reus teed up Gundogan with a virtually open goal,
but somehow, Lopez recovered to make an unbelievable save.
Lewandowski
missed from eight yards before Madrid finally showed signs of life in
the second half, but true to form, Di Maria stroked wide of the far post
from just inside the box, before Ronaldo poked over from a similarly
promising position.
But substitute Benzema would
give the hosts a glimmer of hope with seven minutes remaining,
side-footing in from close range after Kaka teed up Ozil for the cross
from the right.
And it got even better for the Spanish side when Ramos smashed the ball home from Benzema's layoff with two minutes plus stoppage time left in the game.
But
with the home fans roaring them on, Madrid could not go that last step
further as Dortmund survived a few late scares to edge over the finish
line.
Now the only question that remains is whether Wembley will
be an all-German affair, with Bayern Munich well on their way to taking
the Bundesliga’s most high-profile rivalry onto the biggest stage of
them all.
Post a Comment