30 April 2014
CHELSEA 1 (Torres 36)
ATLETICO MADRID 3 (Adrian 44, Costa 60 Pen, Turan 72)
Willian was running into a blind alley but a sharp turn took him inside Felipe Luis and Godin, Azpilicueta rolled his centre into the box and the dyke scored against his former club via a deflection. Chelsea reject Tiago hung up a high cross which presumably everyone thought was heading out of play but Juanfran leapt in the air and volleyed across goal and the unmarked Adrian bounced in the equaliser, his first goal since November.
Eto'o conceded the penalty within six minutes of replacing Ashley Cole, clumsily kicking Diego Costa. Juanfran swung a brilliant cross over to the back post, Turan's bullet header came back off the underside of the crossbar and he chased down his own rebound to complete a comprehensive victory.
Attendance : 37,918
Assists : Azpilicueta, Juanfran, Costa (won pen), n/a
29 April 2014
BAYERN MUNICH 0
REAL MADRID 4 (Ramos 16, Ramos 20, Ronaldo 34, Ronaldo 90)
Ancelotti maintained his unbeaten record against Bayern Munich in emphatic fashion, giving them their heaviest ever home defeat in Europe. Ramos began the rout with a bullet header from a Modric corner. Four minutes later Ramos headed in his second after Pepe flicked on a Di Maria free kick. Bale intercepted from Ribery on the edge of his own penalty area and passed to Di Maria who immediately spread the play out wide to Benzema on the half way line, Benzema pulled down the ball and sent Bale between two defenders and he could have went for goal himself but centred for Ronaldo to fire home the third.
Ramos should have been sent off for going through Lahm yet didn't even get the yellow that would have ruled him out of the final. Useless, square passing, fouling shit Xavi Alonso wasn't as lucky and his booking means he's out of the final. SHAME. Casillas wasn't forced into a difficult save all game. Ronaldo ended the torment when he fired a low free kick through a jumping wall.
After last year's final I wrote :
"Everything is setup for Guardiola to succeed at Bayern. He has arguably the best squad in Europe and a great scouting network. Providing he adapts his methods to German football and respects and embraces the athleticism and power that is and has been a feature of German football for decades there's no reason he can't match the success he had at Barcelona. Heynckes should retire on a high. His record at big clubs doesn't make for good reading and he won't top this."
He didn't. I will always maintain a high line is a naive defensive tactic and the only reason it has worked for Barcelona under Guardiola was due to the awful standard of modern defending. There's a reason this stopped working for Ajax in the 1970s. If Guardiola doesn't adapt next season, and it is he and not the players that need to adapt, they'll get bounced out of European when they face a disciplined defence and he'll be off to the EPL. As Mourinho said :
"If the opponent is very fast and needs space behind your defence and you give them that space, you are stupid."
Attendance : 68,000
Assists : Modric (ck), Pepe, Bale, Ronaldo (won fk)
23 April 2014
REAL MADRID 1 (Benzema 19)
BAYERN MUNICH 0
Real Madrid should have been three goals up at half time but they had to settle for one when Benzema tapped in Coentrao's centre after Ronaldo sent him down the left. Ronaldo missed an absolute sitter, firing over for 12 yards and Di Maria also blazed over as Real Madrid tore through Bayern on the break again. Bayern only had one notable effort, for all their monotonous square passing but Casillas made a brilliant save to deny Gotze.
Attendance : 79,283
Assist : Coentrao
22 April 2014
ATLETICO MADRID 0
CHELSEA 0
Attendance : 52,560
Assists : n/a