Twelve years this April 25th marks the famous elimination of the real Madrid at the hands of Bayern Munich in Champions League. A fateful penalty shootout for the whites that the Bavarians have now remembered, with a message that has begun to warm up the semi-finals that both teams will play next week.
“What happened after?”the Munich team asked themselves through their X account (formerly Twitter) along with an image of Cristiano Ronaldo kicking the first maximum penalty of the night for Jose Mourinho’s team, which tied the tie (2-1) on the Bernabéu pitch after losing in the first leg in Germany.
Bayern’s ‘hesitation’ has not stopped there. “In case you weren’t sure,” the German team added in a subsequent message, attaching a short video clip of the moment in which Manuel Neuer stops the Portuguese’s launch.
The fateful penalty shootout
That day, the Bernabéu was close to experiencing one of those magical European nights: In a quarter of an hour of play, a double from Cristiano put the whites virtually in the final. But Bayern was not going to make it easy for the whites: Robben tied the tie from the spot and the scoreboard did not move again.
Everything was left to the chance of penalties. Alaba started, today in the Merengues ranks, scoring for the Bavarians. Then, it was Ronaldo’s turn, who missed. Mario Gómez confirmed the Portuguese’s failure by scoring his penalty. It was Kaká’s turn, who couldn’t score either. And when everything seemed lost, Casillas appeared: He guessed the throw to Toni Kroos.
Xabi Alonso added excitement to the shootout by scoring his penalty, the first that Real Madrid had scored. And El Santo appeared again, with a save on Lahm’s shot, to leave everything in the boots of Sergio Ramos. But there was no epic that night: the centre-back sent the ball into the clouds and the Madridistas said goodbye to Europe.
The European semi-final classic
It has rained a lot since then and Bayern Munich and Real Madrid have changed a lot in these 12 years. The Munich team, who lost that final on penalties against Chelsea, added two European Cups (2013 and 2020) to their record after that edition. The whites, who were up to nine, now have 14, having achieved glory in 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2022.
Next Wednesday, May 8, both will meet again on the grass of the Allianz Arena. It will be the twenty-seventh time that the Bavarians and Madrid fans face each other. For now, the statistics work in favor of the whites: They have defeated the Germans up to 12 timesfor the 11 in which they have been defeated.
