Pep Guardiola will leave Bayern Munich without a Champions League title. The Spanish manager and his Bayern side suffered a third consecutive Champions League semifinal exit, after Antoine Griezmann's away goal put Atletico Madrid in a second final in three seasons.
In a match with plenty of goalmouth action and a couple of missed penalties, it was Griezmann's goal in the 54th minute, off a quick Atletico counter-attack, when Fernando Torres found his strike partner to apply an authoritative finish, that decided this semifinal tie.
Coming into the second leg in Munich with a 1-0 lead, Atletico found themselves back on level terms when Xabi Alonso's deflected freekick gave Bayern a 1-0 lead. However, Griezmann turned the tie in Atletico's favour with his strike nine minutes into the second half, and despite Robert Lewandowski scoring on 74 minutes to setup a grandstand finish, the tie ended 2-2 on aggregate, with Atletico Madrid going through to the final on the away goals rule.
Unlike the first leg at the Vicente Calderon, Bayern Munich came out all guns blazing in this match at the Allianz Arena, with Jan Oblak called into making a few early saves, particularly one to deny Lewandowski from close range.
However, Bayern took a deserved lead when Alonso's thumped freekick took a big deflection of Jose Maria Gimenez to nestle into the back of the net. A few minutes later, Bayern Munich had the perfect opportunity to go ahead in the semifinal tie for the first time, when referee Cuneyt Cakir gave the home team a penalty after Gimenez wrestled Javi Martinez to the ground.
Thomas Muller stepped up and you would have bet your house on the ball going in, but Oblak guessed right to make a splendid save, before getting back up quickly to repel Alonso's follow up.
From there, it was all about the Griezmann strike, and while Lewandowski scored in the 74th minute, off a knock down from Arturo Vidal, Bayern Munich just could not find the third goal necessary to take them to the Milan final, with Atletico failing to put the tie to bed without any shadow of a doubt when Torres missed a spotkick five minutes from time.
However, with Bayern tripping up to a Spanish side in the semifinal stage, yet again, it will be Atletico Madrid who will look for a different result from two years ago, when Real Madrid scored an equaliser, via Sergio Ramos in the 93rd minute, before overwhelming Diego Simeone's men in extra time.
There is a good chance that it could be another Madrid derby in the Champions League final, with Real Madrid playing Manchester City in the second semifinal on Wednesday. The first leg ended 0-0, making it anybody's tie to win.
