Los Blancos nearly pulled off
the impossible with two
goals in the last 10 minutes,
but their heroic comeback
came too late to change the
course of the tie, as BVB progressed

Borussia Dortmund will contest the
2012-13
Champions League
final after edging
past Real Madrid despite a 2-0
defeat in their
semi-final second
leg at the
Bernabeu on Tuesday.
The Bundesliga side survived an
early onslaught by Jose
Mourinho's men to hold onto their
4-1 first-leg advantage for most
of the game – and had several chances to make the aggregate
score even more humiliating for
the wasteful hosts. However, goals from Karim
Benzema and Sergio Ramos in the
last 10 minutes suddenly set up
the most frantic of finishes, but
Dortmund hung on to clinch their
first final berth since 1997, when they defeated Juventus 3-1 to
win the trophy. Angel Di Maria, benched for the
first leg, started for the hosts,
while Cristiano Ronaldo also
returned after he was rested
with a thigh complaint for the
Madrid derby victory over the weekend. Dortmund's lineup picked itself,
with Jurgen Klopp restoring the
likes of Marco Reus and Ilkay
Gundogan after resting his
regulars during Saturday's
Bundesliga win over Fortuna Dusseldorf. Mourinho's men knew the
magnitude of the task at hand,
and their start to the match was
suitably relentless. Gonzalo Higuain
could have opened the scoring
four minutes in, but his shot from Mesut Ozil's pass was right at
Roman Weidenfeller. Madrid sent a series of warnings
Dortmund's way, but the
Germans showed a glimpse of
what they were capable of when
Gundogan's clip found Robert
Lewandowski completely unmarked for a half-volley right
at Diego Lopez. However, Ronaldo immediately
mirrored the chance at the other
end, forcing Weidenfeller into a
close range block, before Ozil
somehow dragged wide when put
clean through. The visitors were then handed a
huge blow just before the
quarter hour mark, when Mario
Gotze limped off clutching his
hamstring, and was replaced by
Kevin Grosskreutz. There was enough action in the
first 15 minutes to fill an entire
half of football, but after
weathering the initial storm,
Dortmund regained their
composure and slowed things down – exactly what Madrid did
not want. In fact, the remainder of the half
was rather monotonous by
comparison, leaving Mourinho with
plenty to ponder over the break. But Madrid's half-time plans
were almost wrecked minutes
after the restart, had
Lewandowski kept his cool when
Grosskreutz cleverly found him
unmarked inside the box, instead of blasting the ball into orbit. The Pole nearly made instant
amends when latching onto Reus'
slipped pass, sprinting in behind
and lashing at goal, but the ball
cannoned off the underside of
the bar. There was only one side that
looked like scoring, and it was not
the team that needed three
goals to progress. The quietly
impressive Reus teed up
Gundogan with a virtually open goal, but somehow, Lopez
recovered to make an
unbelievable save. Lewandowski missed from eight
yards, before Madrid finally
showed signs of life in the second
half, but true to form, Di Maria
stroked wide of the far post from
just inside the box, before Ronaldo poked over from a
similarly promising position. But substituteBenzema would give the hosts a glimmer of hope
with seven minutes remaining,
side-footing in from close range
after Kaka teed up Ozil for the
cross from the right. And it got even better for the
Spanish side whenRamos smashed the ball home from
Benzema's layoff - with two
minutes plus stoppage time left in
the game. But with the home fans roaring
them on, Madrid could not go
that last step further, as
Dortmund survived a few late
scares to edge over the finish
line. Now the only question that
remains is whether Wembley will
be an all-German affair, with
Bayern Munich well on their way
to taking the Bundesliga's most
high-profile rivalry onto the biggest stage of them all.

Cristiano Ronaldo shows his frustration against Dortmund

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