Three minutes. That was how close Harry Kane was to a Champions League final at Wembley. Three minutes from home. Three minutes from glory.

But Real Madrid somehow seem immune from defeat here at the Bernabeu and indeed in this competition. And two late goals turned catastrophe in to victory for Carlo Ancelotti and his team.

The Spanish champions will feel they deserve their place in next month's final against Borussia Dortmund. They dominated much of this game and they had the better chances.

Still they seemed to be heading out after Bayern substitute Alphonso Davies broke to score brilliantly from the angle of the penalty area midway through the second half. The pass to feed him had come from Kane. That feeling only hardened when Real had an apparent equaliser from defender Nacho ruled out by VAR for a foul two minutes later.

The truth is that Bayern probably would have made it had it not been for a mistake from an unlikely source three minutes from time. A low shot from the Brazilian Vinicius Junior should have been gathered by Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer. But the ball popped out and Real substitute Joselu - once of Stoke City - poked in the rebound.

Jude Bellingham (pictured) ousted England team-mate Harry Kane to reach the Champions League final with Real Madrid

That was hard enough to take for Bayern but within minutes they were dead. A low cross was too accurately delivered for the German defence to cope with and despite an initial offside flag, a VAR check showed Joselu to be onside as he scored the second goal to come from barely five minutes on the pitch.

So England's representative in the final at Wembley will not be Kane or indeed Eric Dier but Real's Jude Bellingham. By the time the new darling of the Bernabeu was announced as the man of the match over the tannoy, Kane was a desolate figure on the bench having been taken off with the score at 1-0.

The really big teams always warrant an increased level of respect and even, on occasion, a different way of playing. So it was that the challenge presented by Bayern saw Ancelotti organise his team in to what was essentially an old-fashioned 4-42 formation. 

Bellingham, so used to roaming free in the pocket behind the forwards, was stationed on the left side of the midfield four as Real looked to neutar the threat of Bayern's speedy wide players on the counter.

Early on the plan didn't do much to detract from Real's own attacking threat. The crowd that accompanied the Real team bus on its way to the stadium was 20 deep in places while the atmosphere beneath the closed roof of this remodelled stadium was one of expectation as much as excitement. From the start, Real played like favourites too. 

The press the home team's attacking players presented whenever Bayern defenders had the ball was suffocating. As such mistakes were to be expected. Eric Dier got away with an early one as he presented the ball to an opponent just outside his own penalty area before a super low Dani Carvajal cross opened Bayern up for the first time in the sixth minute. There were at least four Real players closing on as the ball sped right to left across goal but none of them were close enough to nudge it in.

Half-time seemed to have contained something of a reappraisal in the home dressing room as Real emerged with Bellingham tucked a little further infield and with Vinicius Junior under apparent instruction to run straight and hard at Joshua Kimmich whenever possible.

The Brazilian did it successfully three times in the first ten or fifteen minutes of the half. On the first occasion it took a superb six-yard line tackle from Dier to clear the ball from danger. Soon after he did it again only for his pass to be misdirected and then, in the 55th minute, he reached the byline, checked back and pulled the ball back to Rodrygo. His team-mate got to the ball first under pressure but his first-time shot missed the base of the far past by a matter of inches.

With the home crowd re-energised, it was time for Bayern to hang on again. Briefly they got out, Kane shooting low towards the near post from an angle, but within seconds Vinicius Junior had the ball again, this time cutting inside to work Neuer with a rising right foot shot that needed touching over. Around this time there was also a free-kick from Rodrygo that Neuer pushed away.

At times Real were still impetuous. There were two or three occasions that they shot – and did so poorly – from distance when they would have been better advised to build the play and in particular feed the Real dangerman down their left flank.

Bayern, for their part, continued to break and do so very well on the whole. In the 67th minute, for example, Musiala found a yard and forced Lunin to touch over. Then, two minutes, later they scored.

Once again the outlet was down the left as Kane fed substitute Alphonso Davies. The Canadian had so much to do but the right foot that was delivered from the angle of the penalty area was too accurate and too powerful for Lunin as it sped by him in to the far corner.

Bayern were not neutered, far from it. They looked to break quickly whenever they could. One pass through to Kane was cut out by a desperate Real leg before Serge Gnabry really should have found the England captain as he waited at the far post early in the piece. Inexplicably the pass was a yard and half in front of Kane and a golden opportunity had gone.

Soon the best chance of the opening half came along and it was Real who missed it. A pass played in to the penalty area through the legs of Jamal Musiala just before the quarter hour found Vinicius Junior in space. His low shot fizzed across Manuel Neuer and smacked the far post hard. When the ball rebounded to Rodrygo, his shot was saved by the goalkeeper who had recovered his position admirably.

Bayern were wobbling a little but crucially they say this difficult spell out without further alarm. Neuer was to touch a Vinicius Junior cross away from the far post after it evaded everybody five minutes before half-time but by that time Real's threat had receded fractionally.

Kane was a frustrated figure for much of the first half as he felt he was not being offered enough protection when trying to hold the ball up and link play in and around the centre circle. He did come close to making a decisive contribution in the 28th minute, however, as he turned sharply 18 yards from goal and brought a save from Andriy Lunin with a sharp volley.

But Real Madrid somehow seem immune from defeat here at the Bernabeu and indeed in this competition. And two late goals turned catastrophe in to victory for Carlo Ancelotti and his team.

The Spanish champions will feel they deserve their place in next month's final against Borussia Dortmund. They dominated much of this game and they had the better chances.

Still they seemed to be heading out after Bayern substitute Alphonso Davies broke to score brilliantly from the angle of the penalty area midway through the second half. The pass to feed him had come from Kane. That feeling only hardened when Real had an apparent equaliser from defender Nacho ruled out by VAR for a foul two minutes later.

The truth is that Bayern probably would have made it had it not been for a mistake from an unlikely source three minutes from time. A low shot from the Brazilian Vinicius Junior should have been gathered by Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer. But the ball popped out and Real substitute Joselu - once of Stoke City - poked in the rebound.

The Bernabeu was stunned. There had not been much sign of the goal coming. Within two minutes, though, the drama was ramped up even further.

Real had the ball in the net and celebrated their equaliser as defender Nacho reached a cross and saw the ball deflect in off Davis. But Kimmach was prone as Real celebrated and a VAR check revealed a clear shove in the face of the German by his opponent Nacho. The goal didn't stand and Real had quarter of an hour to save themselves.

That they managed to do so was down to Neuer. If the great German has ever made a mistake like this it's hard to recall it. The shot from Vinicius Junior was so straight forward Neuer must have taken his eye off it. Credit to Joselu for the reaction. He cant have anticipated the error but he gambled anyway and the game was level.

From that point, with only minutes to go, Bayern just needed to get to extra-time. But their race was run once Joselu scored his second. VAR had saved them once but was not going to do so again.

So it's Bellingham and a reserve forward who spent two seasons in the Potteries who will fight for glory at Wembley. For Real, European Cup number 15 is up for grabs. For Kane and Dier, a long season in Germany will end without a medal.