Real Madrid 2 - 1 Bayern Munich | Real Madrid stun Bayern Munich to reach Champions League final after late Joselu double

Some of the great talents of the era in an epic Champions League semi-final second leg that was going down to the wire and then – when it felt that nothing would work for Real Madrid - enter the 34-year-old substitute on loan from Espanyol, who once played for Stoke City.

José Luis Mato Sanmartín – Joselu to his friends and fans – was born not far from Munich, in Stuttgart, and has only ten caps for Spain. He started his career in Real Madrid’s academy and left 12 years ago, with eight clubs since then including stops at Hannover 96, Newcastle United and Alaves – although it is his time at Stoke that feels definitive for the purposes of this story. Within ten minutes of his late arrival, he turned this semi-final with two poacher’s goals.

Real, the great Champions League team of the modern era, now stand on the brink of six Champions League trophies in 11 years. Not bad for the competition they sought to destroy with the Super League only three years ago, a feud with Uefa that continues even now. Their 15th title at Wembley on June 1 would mean they have more than twice the next ranked team, AC Milan on seven. It is extraordinary by any measure and this was an extraordinary night.

Jude Bellingham, the great young Englishman in Real’s team, will face his former club Borussia Dortmund in the final. He has already won the league title in his first year. This was not his best game of a sparkling season but the best may be yet to come. It will take some drama to beat this night, with Real going out of the competition on 88 minutes and then going through by the 91st.

Joselu scored two goals with his first three touches. Even so, that barely described the drama which would ensue. The Bayern manager Thomas Tuchel could barely control his rage after the game that the referee Szymon Marciniak, who took charge of the 2022 World Cup final, would disallow a late Matthijs De Ligt equaliser for a debatable offside. Tuchel said the decision by the assistant to raise his flag early in the move rather than let the phase of play unfold was “against every rule in modern football”.

Real had dominated the game. In Vinicius Junior, they had its best player. Bellingham might ordinarily be the man for these late matchwinners. Alphonso Davies scored for Bayern one of the finest goals ever from a full-back. But this was, as Bellingham said later in a television interview, Joselu’s night. The striker only returned to Real last summer because they could not afford a better option to replace Karim Benzema. This time last year Joselu was playing for Espanyol in a relegation season. They are still the club to whom he is contracted.

Tuchel would warn later that Harry Kane was playing through serious back pain. Jamal Musiala was, figuratively speaking, “dead” when it came to his fitness. Yet that pair had laid the groundwork for an astonishing goal from Davies in the second half, which turned the tie in Bayern’s favour. That Tuchel would later substitute both Kane and Musiala was, he said, a necessity given their fitness. But Bayern could not hold out in their absence.

For Kane, another season ends without trophies although this time it is not with Tottenham Hotspur but the mighty Bayern. Bayer Leverkusen and Dortmund are the kings of German football for now and Kane has just a barrow full of goals and a very sore back. His assist for Davies was outstanding and Bayern missed him badly in the last few minutes as their resolve slipped.

First it was a mistake from the great Manuel Neuer, who had been outstanding until then. He dropped the weakest of Vinicius’ many shots at the Bayern goal at the feet of Joselu. Then three minutes later the striker turned in a cross, originally flagged as offside – a decision overturned by VAR. It had not been a good night for the Polish officials. “We want the best referees,” Tuchel said, “and if he is not able to offer 100 per cent then apologies are worthless.”

Carlo Ancelotti would point to Marciniak’s decision to disallow a crucial Real goal after Davies’s strike as proof that his team had viable complaints too. Nacho had appeared to thrust his hands into the face of Joshua Kimmich before a corner struck the Real captain and ricocheted in. Ancelotti began his press conference by saying simply, “It’s happened again”. Real’s run in the competition was, he said, “magical”. A win at Wembley would be the fifth Champions League of his career, two more than the nearest managerial contenders.

The star of the show before Joselu’s arrival was Vinicius, the best player in the competition’s latter stages. He gave Kimmich a frightful night. On many occasions, it was just the miscues of Vinicius’ team-mates and the saves of Neuer that prevented Vinicius from winning it on his own.

Yet for all the occasions when it seemed like the Brazilian had unlocked the right side of Bayern, and left Kimmich spinning behind him, Real did not score the goal that would change the game. That left them vulnerable to the precision of Bayern’s counterattack. They did that with a quick transition. Musiala brought it clear and from there Kane held back in a pocket of space so his team-mate could find him. A right-foot Kane cross-field hit into Davies’ run down the left and the chance was on. It required a finish of exceptional quality and Davies found it. He ran Antonio Rudiger and hit a right foot shot across Lunin.

It set up a spectacular ending and only in the final moments did Real at last find a way twice in the space of three minutes.