Real Madrid Routs Bayern Munich in Champions League

MUNICH — Cristiano Ronaldo sprinted toward the end line, his arms shaking and his eyes wide. Suddenly he stopped in front of a wall of Bayern Munich fans at the Allianz Arena, and held up 10 fingers. Then he dropped one hand and raised five fingers again.

His point was clear. Ronaldo, the Portuguese superstar, had just set a record for most goals scored by a player during a Champions League season (with 15 in 10 games, he subtly reminded everyone). Even more, his goal had sealed Real Madrid’s passage to next month’s final in Lisbon, where the club will seek to win its 10th European title.

So Ronaldo preened. He screamed and shouted and, later, when he capped Real’s destruction of Bayern with his 16th goal about an hour later, he jumped so high he could have cleared a pool table. The final score in Tuesday’s semifinal second leg was 4-0 and 5-0 on aggregate, and it could have been worse. Munich was blown out of its building.

Real, which also got two goals from Sergio Ramos, will face either Atlético Madrid, its intracity foil, or Chelsea, which is coached by the former Real manager José Mourinho, in the title match next month.

Cristiano Ronaldo celebrated his Champions League record-scoring goal

“It was our best game against a dangerous rival,” said Manager Carlo Ancelotti of Real Madrid. Ancelotti, who is chasing his third Champions League title (he won two with A.C. Milan), called it “a perfect game.”

For the Bayern players, the massacre was mortifying; the club was seeking to reach its fourth final in five years and had high hopes of successfully defending the championship (to become the first winner of consecutive titles since the Champions League replaced the European Cup) it won at Wembley in London last May. For Manager Pep Guardiola, the ease at which his German champions were dispatched was especially alarming.

Last year, in the semifinals, Bayern blasted Barcelona, Guardiola’s former club, which was still playing his possession-centric style. Bayern was a counterattacking juggernaut, pushing the ball forward quickly as soon as it gained possession.

This year, Guardiola, in his first season in Munich, has molded Bayern’s style to closely match his Barcelona days. And while Bayern cruised to the German league title, Guardiola’s players were viciously undone in the Champions League by a fierce counterattacking side that sprinted forward with lethal purpose. [Via]