Bayern blow opportunity to put semi-final out of sight

A game that had almost everything was never going to leave Real Madrid with nothing.

- MIGUEL DELANEY

Bayern Munich 2
Sane, (53), Kane, (57)

Real Madrid 2 
Vinicius Junior, (24, 83 pen)

That’s just not how they do things in the Champions League. Carlo Ancelotti’s side probably deserved to lose. They were definitely the inferior side. Their English star had a much more challenging night than Bayern Munich’s English star.

And yet it is the 14-time champions that of course leave a big European night that bit more satisfied. Real Madrid have a 2-2 draw and now have the chance to win this semi-final in their own stadium.

It didn’t quite go the way everyone expected after Vinicius Junior’s opening goal, given how impressively Bayern Munich rallied. And yet the Germans – and even Harry Kane – will feel they could have scored far more.

That subtle psychology might be crucial for the second leg as Bayern try to save their season and Madrid seek to embellish theirs, and their record. While Kane did score a penalty, it wasn’t a night to enhance Jude Bellingham’s reputation. He was substituted and had one of his most anonymous games for the club, ensuring Ancelotti found him quite dispensable. That might only rile Bellingham further for the second leg. There is still a job to be done, and a massive game to come.

It is well poised, even if not quite in the way imagined. That is of a theme, however.

For all the evidence we have of 14 European Cups and so many world-class players, like Vinicius Junior, there is still sometimes a mystery over how the modern Real Madrid have actually managed this. They seem to leave so much to pure chance, in a way they shouldn’t even need to.