Juventus ousts Real Madrid to reach Champions League final against Barcelona

Real Madrid, who won the UEFA Champions League last season and a record nine times prior as well, were eliminated on Wednesday. Juventus kept Real to a 1-1 tie in Spain, ensuring that it will face FC Barcelona in the final in Berlin on June 6, courtesy of a 3-2 aggregate win.

[FC Yahoo: Look back on Real vs. Juve as it happened at the Bernabeu]

Many had hoped for a Clasico final between Barca and Real. The Catalans had delivered on their end of the bargain on Tuesday by ousting Bayern Munich in the other semifinal. Yet it was Juve, considered to be the weakest team of the four teams left by some distance, who claimed the other place in the 11-month tournament’s climactic game when Alvaro Morata equalized on Cristiano Ronaldo’s go-ahead penalty in the second half.

Juve, perhaps wisely and perhaps not, decided to not to park the bus in this game either, as you might have expected them to. After all, a 0-0 stalemate would have seen them through, courtesy of their 2-1 victory in Turin last week. But then sitting in against Real Madrid is a bit like jumping into a lion pit unarmed. Eventually, when the lions grow hungry enough, you’ll get mauled.

The Italians managed to put themselves on fairly equal footing, but it took just six minutes for Real to start producing chances. Karim Benzema had a chance when a cross sailed to him in the box and he dinked it into some space for himself with a soft touch. But after spinning toward the ball, he blasted it into the upper deck.

Not much later, a long and vicious Ronaldo free kick dipped onto the roof of goal. Benzema then put a square ball just behind Ronaldo on a break. And Gareth Bale ripped a vicious long shot at Gianluigi Buffon, who could only slap it wide.

Then, seemingly inevitably, Real got the goal it had been lusting after. The otherwise outstanding Giorgio Chiellini chopped down James Rodriguez in his own box with a, well, ham-footed challenge. Ronaldo coolly converted by clipping the ball through the middle of goal. Now, in the 23rd minute, the score favored Real on the away goals rule.

Balance mostly reigned – as it had in the first game, when Juve arguably won by outsmarting their visitors – even if Real had the bulk of the chances by capitalizing on the counter. At the half-hour mark, Benzema scampered away on the break, laid off for Ronaldo, who, perhaps for the first time in his career, passed up a clear scoring chance and instead dispatched a cross that was cleared.

Bale then found Ronaldo again, who smashed his finish just wide, whereupon Buffon denied Benzema at the same post. Real never put the game away, and it would cost them a chance at becoming the first club to win back-to-back titles in the Champions League era.

The second half took a while to really get going. But then, in the 57th minute, a Juve free kick wasn’t cleared properly. It was dropped back into the box, where Paul Pogba headed it across. Morata, the Real youth product sold to Juventus just last summer, chested it down and bounced a shot through the hands of Iker Casillas – his second tally of this series.

Once again, the Italian club had cunningly made the most of its sparse chances, defying the seemingly preordained narrative of a matchup with Real once more. The score put Juve back into the final and began Real’s furious pursuit of a goal that would at least push the tie into extra time.

James put a long shot just over. Bale rose high on a Ronaldo cross, but nodded just high. Bale whipped a shot wide. Javier Hernandez distracted two defenders on a high ball and almost induced a wide-open chance. But Juve rode out the game without ever really looking uncomfortable.

And then, when the final whistle rang out, they fell to the ground, stunned. Buffon turned to his own fans and pumped his fists furiously.

Real looked on, disheveled and disbelieving.

Leander Schaerlaeckens is a soccer columnist for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter @LeanderAlphabet.