Manchester City huffed and puffed again without ever looking like blowing the Real Madrid house down, and a goal was all that took for the 2014 champions to book a place in the final of the UEFA Champions League. Fernando's own goal gave Real Madrid a 1-0 victory in the Champions League semifinal second leg, and on aggregate, setting up a Madrid derby showdown with Atletico.
While the scoreline was only 1-0 over the two legs, Real Madrid were the much better side throughout, particularly in the second leg, where they looked like the only team capable of scoring the goal, with that vital strike coming in the 20th minute.
Dani Carvajal, who found space quite often down the right, played a ball through to Gareth Bale, whose attempted cross/strike from an angle took a deflection off Fernando before hitting the top corner, leaving Joe Hart with no chance.
After taking the lead, Real Madrid looked the likelier team to find the second goal, despite Manchester City only needing one to go through on the away goals rule.
Ronaldo, clearly not quite at 100%, was not his usual effective self, but he did have a couple of decent opportunities with his head, one which went high and the other, which was saved by Hart, diving to his left.
Manchester City, who lost their skipper Vincent Kompany to an injury early in the game, were quite disappointing going forward, with Sergio Aguero, Kevin De Bruyne and Yaya Toure, the three who needed to inspire them at the Bernabeu, all going missing.
Toure, coming off an injury, hardly had any impact in the game, before going off after the hour mark for Raheem Sterling. De Bruyne could not get into this semifinal second leg either, playing down the left to begin with, and even if he went more central in the second half, there was still none of that brilliance we have come to expect from the Belgian, since his move to Manchester City.
Sergio Aguero, the man capable of the stunning in the blink of an eye, failed to produce any of that magic on Wednesday, with his best effort coming from distance, when his strike dipped and swerved before hitting the top of the net, rather than the inside of it.
Manuel Pellegrini, who managed his last European game for Manchester City, will know that this was a missed opportunity over the two legs, but credit must be given to Zinedine Zidane, who organised his Real Madrid team quite well to ensure City's usually strong attack looked quite blunt, and that too over 180 minutes.
It is Real Madrid vs Atletico Madrid now in Milan, in a repeat of the 2014 Champions League final, when the former beat the latter in extra time.
