.png)
3 hours ago
2
Key events Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature
68 min: Olise just over! The former Crystal Palace winger has been unusually quiet tonight – and credit to Ferland Mendy at left-back for that – but Olise pounces on a loose ball, cuts inside like Prime Robben and curls a shot towards the top corner … Lunin just tips it over! Replays show the Madrid keeper made a good save there.
66 min: Mbappé is enjoying the freedom of Bavaria as he collects another long lofted pass and is allowed to turn. Mbappé finds Valverde, who shoots … but Neuer is able to save. Too central.
64 min: Potentially as a result of those substitutions, we have our first lull, over an hour into the game.
62 min: A sloppy pass from Bayern allows Real to break once more. Vini has just Upamecano to beat but instead chooses to try and left-footed shot on the angle, skewing it horribly wide. That was a pretty good chance for Real to take the lead for the first time in this tie, and wasteful from the Brazilian!
60 min: On the hour mark, both sides make changes.
Bayern replace Gnabry with Musiala. Not a bad player to bring off the bench.
Madrid bring on Camavinga for Brahim Diaz. A bit more bite in midfield for the visitors, although less creativity.
58 min: Mbappé dances into the Bayern box, jinking and feinting as he tries to get a yard of space, but Davies and Kimmich combine to shut down the Madrid man.
56 min: Bayern seem intent on playing this high line, and time and time again Madrid are bearing down on goal. It’s not rocket science, and I fear that Kompany has got his tactics slightly wrong. Surely one of the senior pros – Kimmich?! – needs to have a word with the defence.
Huge save from Neuer to deny Mbappé!
54 min: A sensational diagonal ball/cross from Alexander-Arnold finds Mbappé at the back post! The Frenchman tries a first-time volley, but Neuer stands tall and parries the ball away, Beckham-esque delivery from Trent, there. Ridiculous tech.
52 min: This is elite long-ball football from Madrid, as Alexander-Arnold punts one long into the channel. Mbappé is onto it like a whippet and forces Davies to concede a corner, cleared by Bayern.
50 min: Bayern have had 56% possession in this match, but Madrid have looked the more dangerous side on the counter-attack. Madrid are soaking up further pressure here, with Vini and Mbappé ready to spring forward on the turnover.
47 min: From the resulting corner, Upamecano has another free-header at the back post but can’t quite divert is under Madrid’s crossbar! What on earth are Madrid playing at? It’s been a thrilling game, but the standard of defending has been atrocious. Long may it continue.
“I know these goalfests are great fun and all, but what is with these European heavyweights playing with such high lines against the best and fastest forwards in the world?” asks Tim Smith. “Barcelona do it every game (two sending offs in their quarter final as invariably their centre backs are challenging from behind as the last man) and tonight it’s Bayern. It’s almost like they’re daring the other team to a shoot-out. It sometimes works, but it is high-risk. A little defensive nous can go a long way at this stage.”
46 min: Diaz so nearly scores inside the first minute. Madrid are all over the place as Diaz cuts inside, leaving a trail of bodies in his wake as Rüdiger and Valverde throw themselves at the feet of the Colombian, but it is actually Bellingham that gets a crucial touch to divert the shot only a few inches wide!
Peeeeeeeeeep!
We’re back underway for the second half!
Bayern make a change: Alphonso Davies comes on for Stanisic, who possibly picked up a knock at the end of the first half. Davies – much coveted by Madrid over the years – will go to left-back and Laimer will go over to right back for Bayern.
No changes for Madrid.
Former England goalkeeper Joe Hart, a pundit for TNT Sports tonight, points out that Neuer has had a bit of a shocker in the first half. Yes, for Real Madrid’s opener, but also from Arda Güler’s free-kick. Neuer was actually positioned behind the goalline and was never in the correct position to dive to his left. He actually didn’t dive, partly because he would have careered into the post, so ended up shuffling to his left before falling into the net. Yes, the free-kick was right in the postage stamp, but it was still poor goalkeeping.
… but ended up floundering in the net like a lost fish.
It is, perhaps unsurprisingly, a more sedate affair at the Emirates. It is 0-0 between Arsenal and Sporting, so the Gunners lead 1-0 on aggregate. The winner from this tie plays Atlético Madrid in the semi-finals.
The Hotspot is our new newsletter, in which we delve into the best stories on how sport is changing around the climate crisis, and what can be done to navigate a way forward.
This is our first edition:
And you can sign up directly right here:
A plug for tomorrow: Sid Lowe will be online from 12pm BST on Thursday to tackle all the big questions about the Champions League, European football and beyond. Keep an eye on the football front page. We do spoil you.
“Call it what you will, this is der Wahnsinn, la locura, MADNESS!”, emails Justin Kavanagh.
Half-time: Bayern Munich 2-3 Real Madrid (4-4 agg)
Absolute madness in Bavaria. What a game of football this is.
45 min: Two minutes left of this breathless first half.
44 min: Kompany is furious, claiming that Stanisic was fouled in the build-up to that Mbappé goal. Stanisic got a little body check, but I don’t think it was really a foul. The Bayern head coach takes his protests too far and is booked. That means Kompany will serve a touchline ban if Bayern do quality for the semi-final first-leg against PSG.
GOAL! Bayern Munich 2-3 Real Madrid (Mbappé 43, 4-4 agg)
Good grief. What a game of football and we are all square on aggregate again! Vini runs at Tah from the left wing, the Bayern defender furiously backpeddling into his area. Vini gets his head up and finds Mbappé with a perfectly weighted pass. It’s a sumptuous touch from the Frenchman, who slides a finish under the advancing Neuer! It’s 4-4 on aggregate!
Kári Tulinius emails: “When Mbappé accelerated to get to the end of Vinicíus’ pass, he was moving like a character in a silent film when they turn the crank faster. Or a character in a computer game who gets a speed boost. Or like Neo in the Matrix. Point is, he’s absurdly fast.”
Viní hits the bar for Real Madrid!
42 min: Bayern continue to play a high line in an attempt to squeeze Madrid’s midfield but Viní breaks the offside trap, canters forward and curls a shot, which clips the top of the bar and over! Inches from Madrid retaking the lead!
40 min: Yellow card for Militão, who swipes through the back of Kane. A bizarre tackle, given Kane was going nowhere. Now Militão has nearly an hour to play on a booking.
GOAL! Bayern Munich 2-2 Real Madrid (Kane 38, 4-3 agg)
Harry Kane’s 50th goal of the season in all competitions. Díaz makes a brilliant dummy run and Upamecano finds the feet of Kane in the penalty area. The England striker kills it dead near the penalty spot and passes the ball into the corner, sending Lunin the wrong way. What a first half we have had!
35 min: Bellingham has been quietly very impressive in central midfield for Real Madrid. The Englishman’s physicality is showing and he has already won a good number of duels.
33 min: Inside his own penalty box, an excellent tackle from Alexander-Arnold on his former Liverpool teammate Diaz! He will have enjoyed that.
31 min: Now, then. We have a game/tie on our hands.
GOAL! Bayern Munich 1-2 Real Madrid (Arda Güler 29, 3-3 agg)
Arda Güler scores direct from a free-kick, curling a beautiful left-footed over the wall and right into the top corner! Neuer collapses into the net after getting a hand to it but couldn’t keep it out! Should the German have got there?!
27 min: In fairness to Lunin, the Madrid keeper follows up his aerial errors with a fine stop here, denying Kimmich from range.
25 min: Deary me! Another Bayern corner, another Lunin disaster-class as the Madrid keeper flaps again at a Kimmich cross and is awfully lucky that Upamecano is not more alert at the back post.
23 min: A couple more Bayern corners, this time from the right-hand side. Militão repels the Olise inswingers.
21 min: This is a good little period for Madrid, who are edging themselves into the game. Mendy gets on the overlap to support Mbappé and goes down in the box under a challenge from Tah, but the referee waves play on. Mendy slipped.
19 min: Vini, parked on the left touchline, finds Mbappé with a delicious through ball. Mbappé breaks the offside trap but rather than let fly with his left foot, he runs around the ball which allows Laimer to race back and get a crucial tackle in! That was very dangerous for Bayern, who are playing a high line against one of the fastest and best strikers in the world.
16 min: One big difference to last week is Mendy at left-back for Real Madrid. Carreras had a torrid time against Olise at the Bernabéu but Mendy is being a lot more physical and tighter to Bayern’s right winger. Arbeloa will be quietly pleased with Mendy’s start.
14 min: Militão has his pocket picked by Díaz, who plays a neat one-two with Olise, but Militão races back and makes a superb (albeit risky) challenge on Diaz inside the box. That was an inch-perfect recovery from Real Madrid’s Brazilian defender.
12 min: Another corner to Bayern, but Kimmich’s near post delivery is well defended by Bellingham. Lunin must be quaking in his boots every time a set piece comes into his box.
10 min: Another backpass to Neuer. The Bayern keeper punts it long, upfield towards Kane. No messing about now.
“MBMers curse of the highest order,” laughs West Ham fan Ian Sargeant (and fair enough). Can you do the Spurs game at the weekend and say you fancy them to get three points?”
8 min: Bayern hit straight back. The home side settle into a period of possession and the Allianz Arena breathes a collective sigh of relief.
GOAL! Bayern Munich 1-1 Real Madrid (Pavlovic 6, 3-2 agg)
Bayern score from a corner: Kimmich whips a pearler of a cross right under the crossbar into a crowd of bodies. Lunin threatens to come to punch, then retreats, then flaps wildly but gets nowhere near the ball. Pavlovic, unmarked and one yard off the goalline, simply heads into an unguarded net. We are back to where we started: Bayern with a one-goal advantage on aggregate!
4 min: An absolutely wild start! Bayern’s advantage has been instantly erased. Both teams will have come into this match with a game plan. Both those initial plans have gone straight in the bin after the fastest goal this season in the Champions League, that goal coming just 35 seconds into the match.
2 min: After all my pre-match chat about Neuer, that was always going to happen. Cheers, Manuel.
GOAL! Bayern Munich 0-1 Real Madrid (Arda Güler 1, 2-2 agg)
Neuer comes out of his goal to meet an easy back-pass but gifts the ball straight to Arda Güler, who floats a first-time finish into the empty net from 40 yards out! What a start!
Peeeeeeeeeeep!
We are underway in Bavaria!
Here come the teams! The two captains, Real’s Valverde and Bayern’s Neuer, shake hands in the centre circle.
Kylian Mbappé has a plaster on his forehead: the Frenchman had three stitches put in over the weekend after a blow to the head.
There is a minute’s silence for Real Madrid legend José Emilio Santamaría, who died earlier today at the age of 96. There are a couple of rogue shouts from the crowd, and Mbappé looks very unimpressed.
If we are talking about goalkeepers, Thibaut Courtois ongoing absence continues to be a huge blow for Real Madrid. Lunin looked shaky with his feet in the first leg and I also wonder if Courtois would have got to Kane’s shot for Bayern’s second goal? Lunin starts again today, with Courtois sidelined with a thigh problem.
“Yes Neuer is a great keeper, but when you pitch him against Yashin, Banks, you’re really not comparing like with like,” emails Jeremy Boyce. “Chalk and cheese. Yashin, famously, could pick the ball up off the ground with one hand. Banks was a genius, saw him live once, crap match, Everton v Stoke, 0-0, the only moment of magic was a save he made. Neither of these would have been able to ‘play out from the back’ or any of that because it was a different game then. You could still pass back to the keeper! Neuer is great, but really? Up there with those greats from a bygone age? If you’re looking for a great German goalkeeper how about Trautmann as the GGKOAT ? How many others have played on with a broken neck?
No doubting that Trautmann is a legend for different reasons but he doesn’t touch Kahn or Sepp Maier, never mind Neuer. However, Jeremy does make a good point in comparing players from such different eras. It’s effectively impossible, as it was a completely different game and is just a subjective choice. But I’d have 1. Yashin 2. Neuer 3. Buffon (for what it’s worth).
Last week, we saw the worst and best of Trent Alexander-Arnold. The English right-back allowed Luis Diaz to wriggle free (after an admittedly excellent through ball from Gnabry) to score Bayern’s opener in Madrid, and looked a little nervy in the first half, but he was full of running after half time and got forward well before a world-class assist for Mbappé to get Real back into the tie.
I’m not convinced that he should be England’s starting right-back at the World Cup (Reece James surely, assuming he is fit), but it would be madness not to take him in the squad. He’s a unique footballer and if England are chasing a game and need a goal, he can provide a moment of magic.
Re the best goalkeepers of all time, here’s an email from Robin Sebastian Fjeldstad.
“Rogério Ceni has 129 goals in 1209 games. Neuer has 0 goals in 822 games. Debate over.”
This was Ceni at 40 years old (in 2013), by the way. Nae bad.
Nearly 20 minutes to go but the Allianz Arena is absolutely rocking, and has been for over an hour, with Bayern’s ultras getting into the stadium nice and early. They have already announced plans for tifos as the teams come out for kick-off, so we’ll keep you updated on that.
Is Manuel Neuer the greatest goalkeeper of all time? Probably not, that honour is still with Lev Yashin (I think), but the German is (for me) a comfortable second. Neuer made nine saves in the first leg of this tie – two of them were stunning stops – and proved again that he is still one of the best goalkeepers in the world at the age of 40. Other keepers have played into their forties, but it has felt like something of a gimmick. Neuer is still playing at the highest level because he’s simply too good to leave out.
His quality, trophy cabinet, longevity and the innovation that he has brought to the game (particularly in his early years) in terms of coming out from goal and playing out with his feet sees him (in my opinion) move ahead of other greats like Casillas, Buffon, Banks, Zoff, Schmeichel.
Neuer makes his 137th Champions League start for the club in this second, moving ahead of Lionel Messi (136). Only Casillas (149) has more and should Neuer extend his contract and play next season – and there seems no reason why that woudn’t be the case – he should catch the Spaniard.
Some news: José Emilio Santamaría, a four-time European Cup winner with Real Madrid, died earlier today at the age of 96. The Uruguay international joined Madrid in 1957 and went on to lift one Intercontinental Cup, six La Liga titles and one Spanish Cup, making 337 appearances over nine seasons.
“Santamaria will always be remembered as one of the great symbols of our club. He was part of a team that will remain in the memory of all madridistas and football fans worldwide,” Real Madrid president Florentino Perez said in a statement.
Santamaria played 25 times for Uruguay and also represented Spain on 16 occasions. He featured for Uruguay at the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland and later appeared for Spain at the 1962 World Cup in Chile.
After his playing career, he managed Spain’s Olympic team at the 1968 Mexico City Games and the 1980 Moscow Olympics. He was also Spain’s coach at the 1982 World Cup on home soil and spent seven seasons in charge of Espanyol, overseeing 252 matches. Reuters
You can now probably add last week’s first leg to this list.
As mentioned, it was a contrasting weekend for both sides, both of whom were much changed. Real Madrid extended their winless run to three games in all competitions to help Barcelona to the verge of the La Liga title, while Bayern crushed St Pauli 5-0 in the Bundesliga to set an all-time season scoring record while also extending their lead at the top to 12 points with five games left to play.
Team news!
Bayern Munich (4-2-3-1): Neuer; Stanisic, Upamecano, Tah, Laimer; Kimmich, Pavlovic; Olise, Gnabry, Díaz; Kane.
Subs: Prescott, Kim Min-jae, Urbig, Goretzka, Musiala, Jackson, Davies, Ito, Guerreiro.
Real Madrid (4-4-2, possibly shifting to a 4-3-3): Lunin; Alexander-Arnold, Rüdiger, Militão, Mendy; Arda Güler, Valverde, Bellingham, Brahim; Mbappé, Viní.
Subs: Fran Gonzalez, Javi Navarro, Carvajal, Alaba, Camavinga, Gonzalo, Carreras, Ceballos, Fran Garcia, Huijsen, Mastantuono, Thiago.
It’s the same Bayern XI that started last week at the Bernabéu. Tom Bischof has suffered a small muscle fiber tear in his left calf so he is out of Kompany’s squad.
Álvaro Arbeloa has fielded an unbelievably attacking starting XI. Remember, Aurélien Tchouaméni is suspended but Camavinga is left on the bench in favour of Brahim Díaz. After being rested for the 1-1 draw against Girona at the weekend, Trent Alexander-Arnold starts at right back and Mendy is preferred at left back to Fran García and Álvaro Carreras.
Preamble
It doesn’t get a lot bigger or better than this. The outright favourites this season (Bayern) against the most successful European side of all time (Real). A mouthwatering quarter-final between two gigantic behemoths to see who will face the reigning champions (PSG) in the semi-final. Double woof.
The quarter-finals might just be the best part of the Champions League – close enough to the final to get excited of glory but far enough from the tournament climax to still have any number of unknowns and permutations, the games come thick and fast (you can also follow Arsenal v Sporting tonight right here) and there is just a solitary goal separating Bayern and Real Madrid in this tie, with the Germans earning a 2-1 first-leg victory last week at the Bernabéu. Yes, it was a stunning result for Vincent Kompany’s side but Bayern might be frustrated their advantage is not bigger. One thing is for sure, you never, ever count out Real Madrid in this competition.
There is even an English angle on the most continental of evenings, with Harry Kane, Jude Bellingham and Trent Alexander-Arnold all hoping to make their mark on the biggest of stages – the Bayern striker has never won Europe’s biggest prize while Bellingham and Alexander-Arnold will want to deliver timely reminders about their England credentials.
Bellingham was asked on Tuesday about Kane’s chances of winning the Ballon d’Or:
It seems like they’re going to win the Bundesliga, which obviously hurts me considering my brother is at Dortmund, and I was a player there,” Bellingham replied. “Again, it depends on what he does with England, and hopefully, we can try and stop them from winning the Champions League tomorrow, which will obviously have a big effect.
He’s a sensational player. It’s a pleasure to play with him with the national team. I think he’s amazing. He’s showing everyone the last two or three years he’s reached a level where he’s almost perfected his craft in terms of what he can do as a striker.”
It’s going to be quite the show at the Allianz Arena.
Kick-off: 8pm BST.
