Good job the builders at the renovated Santiago Bernabeu put extra-strong fastenings on the roof because it threatened to come off as Real Madrid were up to their old tricks once again.
Everyone has seen this before, the club who are more associated with this competition than any other always find a way and they proved their powers of escapology are as strong as ever.
This Champions League semi-final, second leg had been an engrossing watch with little separating Madrid from Bayern Munich. So when substitute Alphonso Davies cut onto his right foot in the 68th minute and curled a shot beyond Andriy Lunin, it felt decisive.
Bayern had been playing on the wings for much of the tie and having waited for such a moment, looked set to make it count as an all-German final beckoned. For the following 20 minutes, the visitors weren’t overly troubled, but then came the sucker punch from an unlikely source.
With less than two minutes of normal time remaining, what should have been a routine save for Manuel Neuer from a Vinicius Junior shot was fumbled and Joselu tapped home. Then, one minute into stoppage time, came another as Joselu finished a centre from Antonio Rudiger.
From 3-2 down in the tie to 4-3 ahead in the space of three minutes. No wonder this five-tiered stadium shook.
And what of the hero? Joselu, the 34-year-old striker who is on loan from Espanyol, was not touted as a conjurer of such moments. His previous clubs have included Stoke City and Newcastle United and his most recent experiences have been of relegation with Alaves and Espanyol, not Champions League finals.
Yet, that is where his two goals have taken Madrid, again. They will face Borussia Dortmund at Wembley in their 21st final in this competition and their sixth in 11 seasons. Carlo Ancelotti, as always, took it all in his stride and his team will be favourites to claim a record 15th European Cup next month.
It will be Jude Bellingham rather than Harry Kane who walks out at England’s national stadium with the chance to claim European club football’s greatest prize in the first season at a new club. The final will also see a reacquaintance between the midfielder and the club he left to join Madrid last summer.
Bayern can feel hard done by. This was the opportunity for their season to be saved and Thomas Tuchel to end his tenure in a showpiece final.
It felt unfair on Neuer, who had otherwise excelled, that his error opened the door, and there were question marks when Matthijs de Ligt scored late on only for the linesman to have raised his flag early when the call was ever so tight.
Story of the game
As Ancelotti had preempted, like the 2-2 draw in Munich last week, the transitions were key. The pre-match pageantry had not long been packed away before the chances started to flow.
A throng of Madrid players attempted to meet a cross from Dani Carvajal, who was back from suspension, but the ball sailed through while at the other end Serge Gnabry, one of three Bayern changes, failed to make best use of a promising position with a cross-cum-shot.
Madrid were seeing more of the ball but Bayern were finding the space. A quick throw almost caught the visitors out with Vinicius Junior striking the far post and Rodrygo getting to the rebound but Neuer clawed the subsequent effort away. The Bayern ‘keeper was also agile to push wide a whipped cross from Vinicius.
Lunin, kept in goal by Ancelotti despite Thibaut Courtois’s return to fitness, turned Kane’s sweetly-struck volley around the goalpost while Noussair Mazraoui’s effort from distance was an easier claim.
The tie remained finely balanced and it was difficult to guess which way the 29th meeting of the two clubs — the most in Europe’s elite competition — was heading. Rodrygo, under pressure from Eric Dier, could direct Vinicius’s cross goalwards and Neuer used a strong right hand to palm away free-kick from the Brazilian.
A thunderbolt from Vinicius after he drove inside was struck with venom but again the Bayern shot-stopper repelled.
Davies had come on for the injured Gnabry midway through the first half and, having earlier seen a shot deflect off Carvajal and over, the Canadian winger produced a more decisive intervention. Kane’s pass to the left opened up the move and Davies ran at Rudiger before arcing a shot into the far corner.
A first win away to Madrid in 23 years was on the cards — even if the hosts thought they had immediately equalised when a short corner was played to Fede Valverde’s whose shot went in off De Ligt only for it to be ruled out for a blatant push by Carvajal on Joshua Kimmich.
Bayern remained strong and Kane should have done better with a shot into the side-netting from a tight angle. The game was to swing dramatically.
Joselu, born and raised in the German city of Stuttgart, had only been on the pitch for seven minutes when Vinicius’s shot looked easy pickings for Neuer, but the goalkeeper couldn’t keep hold of the ball and the substitute was there to punish him.
Madrid came on strong as stoppage-time was entered. Dier flung himself at a shot from Brahim Diaz as Bayern had their backs to the wall. And when Nacho spun and played the ball out to Rudiger following a corner, there were already questions of offside.
Joselu slotted home from the pull back but there were still answers needed. Was Rudiger offside? Had the ball gone forward to Joselu? The celebrations that almost raised the roof told you which way it had gone.
