Atletico end Pep’s fairytale

Atletico did just enough to advance to their third Champions League final despite losing the semi-final second leg against Bayern.

Cape Town - Pep Guardiola won’t have a fairytale ending at Bayern Munich as a drama-filled Tuesday night at the Allianz Arena saw Atletico Madrid advance to their second Champions League final in three years on the away-goals rule.

Two penalties were saved, but in the end, Atletico did just enough to advance to their third Champions League final in their history despite losing the semi-final second leg 2-1 against Bayern.

Atletico’s French striker Antoine Griezmann’s 54th-minute strike proved to be the difference as he scored the lone away goal of the tie after Diego Simeone’s team won the first leg 1-0 at the Vicente Calderon.

Griezmann was put through on goal by a wonderful pass from Fernando Torres, who beat the offside trap near the halfway line in a breakaway, with Griezmann beating Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer.

But Bayern may have wrapped up a final berth in the first half already when Xabi Alonso put the home team ahead in the 31st minute with a brilliant free kick that struck Jose Maria Giménez and went through his legs to wrong-foot Atletico keeper Jan Oblak.

Three minutes later, Giménez was involved again as he conceded a penalty for what was almost a rugby tackle on Bayern’s Javi Martínez.

Up stepped star German striker Thomas Müller, but he made the mistake of looking up at Oblak before hitting the ball, and the Atletico goal-minder made a good save to keep at the score at 1-0.

Once Griezmann had netted, though, Bayern needed two more goals to get though to the final, which was a tough ask. But Guardiola’s men never gave up, and with 16 minutes to go, they got the breakthrough to launch an almighty onslaught in the closing stages.

The impressive Bayern left back David Alaba produced a wonderful cross into the Atletico box, with Arturo Vidal heading the ball expertly over to the far-post, where Robert Lewandowski nodded in to give the Germans hope.

But as much as Atletico flooded their own half, and Bayern missed a few half-chances around the penalty area, it was the Spaniards who could have settled the tie with seven minutes left.

Turkish referee Cuneyt Cakir made a controversial call to award a penalty to Atletico when Torres was tackled by Javi Martínez, but it was clearly outside the box, although Torres went down inside.

Bayern, though, could breathe again when Torres also missed his penalty, with Neuer making a fine save.

Guardiola urged his team forward, and they camped around the Atletico 18-yard area, but couldn’t land the knockout blow. Alaba’s strike from outside the box took a deflection off an Atletico defender, but Oblak made yet another outstanding dive to his left to shove the ball away from goal.

So Guardiola’s dream of leaving Germany with a Champions League winners’ medal is over ahead of his move to Manchester City in the summer.

For Atletico’s Argentine manager Simeone, he has another chance at glory after Atletico lost the 2014 final 4-1 in extra time to Real Madrid after leading 1-0 into the third minute of injury time, before Sergio Ramos scored the equaliser.

And he will find out on Wednesday night just exactly who Atletico will face in the May 28 final in Milan when Manchester City travel to the Santiago Bernabeu to take on Real Madrid, with everything to play for after a 0-0 result in the first leg in England last week.

ashfak.mohamed@inl.co.za

@IndyCapeSport