MUNICH - Cristiano Ronaldo sprinted toward the end line, his arms shaking and his eyes wide. Suddenly he stopped, right in front of a wall of Bayern Munich fans, and held up 10 fingers. Then he dropped one hand and raised five fingers again.
His point was clear. Ronaldo, the Portuguese superstar, had just set a record for most goals scored by a single player during a Champions League season (with 15, he subtly reminded everyone). Even more, his goal had all but sealed Real Madrid 's place in next month's final, where his club will seek to win its 10th European title.
So Ronaldo preened. He posed. He screamed and shouted and, when he capped off Real's destruction of Bayern with another goal about an hour later, he jumped so high he could have cleared a pool table. The final score in Tuesday's second leg of this semifinal was 4-0, but, in all fairness, it could have been worse. As it was, Munich was blown out of its own building by 5-0 on aggregate.
Real, which also got two goals from Sergio Ramos, will face its city rival Atletico Madrid or Chelsea, who are coached by the former Real manager Jose Mourinho, in the title game next month.
For the Bayern players, the massacre was humbling. The club was seeking to reach its fourth final in five years and had high hopes of defending the championship it won at Wembley Stadium in London last May. For the first-year Bayern manager Pep Guardiola, too, the ease at which the German champions were dispatched was especially alarming.
In last year's semifinals, Bayern blasted Barcelona - Guardiola's former club, which was, in many ways, still playing his possession-centric style. Back then, the Bavarians were a counterattacking juggernaut, pushing the ball forward quickly as soon as they gained possession.
This year, Guardiola - in his first season with Munich - has molded Bayern's style to match his Barcelona days. While Bayern cruised to a German league title, Guardiola saw his players viciously undone in the Champions League by a fierce counterattacking side who sprinted forward with lethal purpose.
Some observers will be quick to say this result shows that the so-called "tiki-taka," or heavy passing style, is outdated. That is probably overstating it, but certainly Guardiola will be forced to examine how malleable his strategies can be given the players he has on his roster.
Real, meanwhile, will simply keep doing what it has been doing: defending well in its own half and then push, push, pushing the ball as fast as it can with Ronaldo and Gareth Bale and a cast of others racing each other to the finish.
On Ronaldo's goal, which began with Bale moving the ball from his own penalty area before sprinting 70 yards to lay the ball off to Ronaldo, it seemed as if the entire team covered the whole of the field in three steps. The only negative for Los Blancos on the night was when Xabi Alonso was booked for a hard tackle; he will now miss the final through a yellow-card suspension.
Nonetheless, Bayern simply could not keep up with Madrid, which was surprising considering the build-up to the match. A 1-0 loss in the first leg was hardly a difficult mountain for Bayern, and the second leg was seen as the showcase game of the tournament.
It came just days after a difficult weekend in European soccer, too. Tito Vilanova, who worked for years under Guardiola at Barcelona before succeeding him as manager there, died at the age of 45 on Friday after a lengthy battle with cancer. Vilanova led the Blaugrana to a league title in 2013 and was beloved by the Catalans fans, as well as by Guardiola, who was a longtime friend.
A minute's silence was observed before the match Tuesday in honor of Vilanova, as well as in remembrance of Vujadin Boskov, a Serbian coach who led Real to Spanish league and cup titles in 1979-80. Boskov died Sunday at the age of 82.
Beyond the passages, there was also the lingering emotional reaction in Spain and elsewhere throughout the soccer world to another incident of racism from spectators. On Sunday, a fan at the Villareal-Barcelona match threw a banana at Barcelona's Brazilian defender Dani Alves. Alves responded, gracefully, by picking up the banana and taking a bite.
The aftermath was a mixture of public disappointment that such incidents still take place and admiration of Alves's pitch-perfect response. In the days since, a surge of admirers of Alves's tact (and message), posted pictures to social media of them eating bananas, complete with the hashtag #SomosTodosMacacos or #WeAreAllMonkeys. Stars like Brazil's Neymar, Argentina's Sergio Aguero and Uruguay's Luis Suarez posted pictures and even Dilma Rousseff, the president of Brazil, joined in.
Earlier this year a group of Bayern fans displayed a homophobic banner during a Champions League round of 16 match with the English club Arsenal. UEFA, European soccer's governing body, responded by forcing Bayern to close one section of its stadium - reducing capacity by about 700 fans - during its next European home game. The club was also fined.
Fortunately, Tuesday's game went off without any obvious controversies in the stands. But, to be fair, the emotion quickly seeped out of the Allianz Arena after Ramos headed in his first goal in the 16th minute. When Ramos added a second four minutes later, a few disgruntled Bayern fans even headed for the exits.
Their emotion was understandable. The rout was on and soon there would be Ronaldo, legs pumping and veins pulsing, running at a sea of red behind the goal. He raised his hands. The Bayern fans could only drop their heads.
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Amzing Moment: Real Madrid Routs Bayern Munich in Champions League