Marco Asensio scored the winning goal as Real Madrid came from behind to beat Bayern Munich 2-1 in the first leg of the Champions League semi final at the Allianz Arena in Munich.
Los Blancos took another step towards a third consecutive Champions League title when half-time substitute Asensio coolly struck the winning goal on 57 minutes. The home side opened the scoring with Joshua Kimmich beating Keylor Navas at his near post in the 28th minute.
Bayern lost defender Jerome Boateng and winger Arjen Robben to injury in the first half before Marcello put the visitors level in the 44th minute. Zinedine Zidane introduced Marco Asensio for the second half with Isco making way and the decision paid off when 22-year-old Asensio took advantage of sloppy play by Rafinha to place his shot beyond the reach of Sven Ulreich.
Real inflicted Bayern’s first home defeat of the season and the Bundesliga champions only have themselves to blame. Bayern have fallen at the semi final stage in three of the past four seasons and manager Juup Heynkes was left ruing wasted opportunities and slack defending.
The home side had 60% of possession and wasted numerous opportunities in front of goal with Robert Lewandowski, Thomas Muller and Franck Ribery all being guilty of missing good chances.
“We had so many chances, it was strange. I’ve never seen us have so many chances in a semi-final, especially against a team like Real Madrid,” said Heynkes.
“We simply weren’t clinical enough and we gifted Real their goals.
“We want to do whatever it takes to put this result right next week. It’s our duty. We didn’t deserve to lose today, so I’m confident.”
The second leg will be played at the Santiago Bernabeu on Tuesday 1 May and Real manager Zidane concedes “the tie is far from over”.
“We’re very satisfied with the result, but we had a lot of problems in the first few minutes trying to take control of the game,” Zidane said.
“The tie is far from over, it’s more than possible that Bayern could win in the Bernabeu, but we are very happy to have won 2-1 in Munich.”
Real won 3-0 at Juventus in the quarter-final, but the Serie A champions pulled the tie level in Madrid only for Los Blancos to clinch their place in the semi finals thanks to Cristiano Ronaldo’s stoppage-time penalty.
“We know that the tie cannot be over after one leg,” he added. “After the Juventus match, we know we’ll need to approach the Bayern result differently, otherwise things could go badly for us.
“We can’t have another night like that.”
