Bayern Munich were five minutes away from earning a fabulous Champions League win against Real Madrid, before Thomas Tuchel’s incredible decision turned the tie in favour of Los Blancos.
Despite there being nine minutes of injury time – which actually turned into 13 in the end – Tuchel clearly believed that his side had done the hard part and brought off both Harry Kane and Jamal Musiala, replacing them with the much less mobile, Thomas Muller and Eric Choupo-Moting.
After already having brought on Kim min-jae in the 76th minute to replace Leroy Sane, it was enough to upset the balance and equilibrium in the Bayern side, and Real Madrid would take an immediate advantage.
Bayern have Tuchel to blame for their elimination
Joselu had only come onto the pitch himself on 81 minutes, and by the 91st, he had scored two goals with his first three touches – one of which was the goal to send Real Madrid to the Champions League final at Wembley.
Bayern will point to what looked like a legitimate equaliser being ruled out late on for Matthijs de Ligt, but that’s just clutching at straws.
Tuchel, a potential target for Man United, knew he’d made an error and a pretty big one at that.
By removing both Musiala and Kane from the front line, the visitors had no out ball and no pace up front with which to be able to, potentially, grab the goal that would’ve taken the match into extra time.
As it was, Tuchel had to stand there on the sidelines and accept that the game had been taken from him and his team as a direct result of his poor decision making.
Real Madrid will believe that they were deserved winners of course, but the fact is that they just have more belief than their opponents in this competition and won’t give it up until the very end.
It takes a special team to beat them, and thanks to Tuchel’s meddling, Bayern was not that team.