UEFA Champions League Semi-finals best XI

Bale has answered his critics 

We are coming to the end of an exciting tournament and the two finalists have been decided. There have been several thrills and spills throughout the season in the Champions League. Some players single-handedly inspired their team to victory while others cost their team dearly.

Both semi-final clashes were close affairs. Atletico took a slender 1-0 lead to Munich but the Bavarians cancelled out their advantage very early in the match. But a mistake in the second half cost Pep Guardiola’s men as they bowed out of the competition.

Real Madrid you could argue were the better team by a small margin in the first leg against Manchester City. In the second leg, the team from England didn’t even show up as Real progressed into the finals after a comfortable 1-0 win.

After some analysis and hard choices here is the best XI of the semi-finals:

GoalKeeper – Jan Oblak

Between the sticks is Atletico Madrid keeper Jan Oblak. Atletico seem to be developing a habit of having fine young goalkeepers in their squad. First, there was David De Gea, who after some fine performances was bought by Manchester United for a handsome fee.

Next Thibaut Courtois joined the ranks on loan from Chelsea and now Oblak is the latest in the trend. The keeper was arguably the best player across the two legs against Bayern. He made several important saves to deny the Bavarian giants at the Allianz arena this week.

The 23-year-old crucially saved Thomas Muller’s penalty in the first half when the Germans were leading 1-0. That stop spurred his team on as the Spanish outfit took advantage of a costly error in the second half to level the scores on the night