CHAMPIONS LEAGUE/ Real Madrid 1 Bayer Munich 0: Zinedine Zidane struck the only goal to give Real Madrid a 2-1 aggregate victory over Bayern Munich last night and send the nine-times European Cup winners through to the Champions League quarter-finals.
The FIFA World Player of the Year provided the one cool head in a tense second leg, hooking the ball into an empty net after 32 minutes to give Real the edge after a 1-1 draw in Munich. Real were missing leading striker Ronaldo and inspirational full back Roberto Carlos, but managed to hold their opponents at arm's length for all but brief periods at the end of each half.
A bad miss from Raul ensured there would be a frantic finale and the atmosphere at a packed Bernabeu was given an added edge when an ugly scuffle broke out on Real's right touchline, with half the players on the field rushing in to protest.
"We're very disappointed, not only because we didn't qualify, but also because we didn't play quite as well as in the first leg," Bayern coach Ottmar Hitzfeld said. "We did fight but maybe we should have taken more risks. But you mustn't forget that Real are a top team. They showed it again today."
Real, who were indeed outplayed by Bayern in the first leg, were soon in control of the return as Guti and Santiago Solari ran the midfield and Zidane provided a consistent threat on the edge of the box.
Guti's shot over the bar gave Kahn a scare in the 10th minute and the chances then came thick and fast for Real. Zidane whipped in a cross for Raul to skim a header just wide in the 16th minute and, a few minutes later, Raul muscled his way past Willy Sagnol and into the box only for Kahn to gather.
But Bayern's 'keeper decided not to come and collect after a David Beckham cross had deflected high into the air. Instead, Michel Salgado won a header against Robert Kovac and Zidane stabbed home unmarked at the far post.
But Bayern responded as Ze Roberto's powerful first-time shot from the edge of the box after 40 minutes brought a block from Casillas and signalled a shift in the game's momentum.
Ballack charged through on the counter-attack in the first minute of injury-time and passed out right for Makaay to force another fine Casillas save with a drilled shot.
From the resulting corner, Bayern managed to hook the ball back into the centre and the Real keeper failed to reach the cross. Claudio Pizarro was first to the loose ball and his shot was acrobatically cleared off the line by Salgado.
Bayern pressed after the break, with the powerful running of substitute Bastian Schweinsteiger causing the home defence real problems, but there were few chances before the tense finale.
The messy confrontation at the end threatened to distract the home side at a crucial moment but they comfortably cleared the resulting free-kick and celebrated the victory almost as if a 10th European title was already theirs.
REAL MADRID: Casillas, Salgado, Bravo, Helguera, Mejia, Guti (Borja 90), Beckham, Figo, Solari (Cambiasso 90), Zidane, Raul. Subs Not Used: Cesar, Portillo, Pavon, Nunez, Juanfran. Booked: Salgado. Goals: Zidane 32.
Bayern Munich: Kahn, Sagnol (Salihamidzic 67), Lizarazu, Kuffour, Kovac, Demichelis, Ballack, Ze Roberto, Hargreaves (Schweinsteiger 46), Pizarro (Santa Cruz 68), Makaay. Subs Not Used: Rensing, Rau, Jeremies, Linke. Booked: Ze Roberto, Lizarazu.
Referee: U Meier (Switzerland).
