To the semi-finals of the UEFA champions league, Atletico Madrid had the upper hand going into their second leg encounter with Bayern Munich at the Alianz Arena after Saul Niguez's superb strike gave the Spanish side a 1-0 win last week. But Deigo Simeone's men knew they would have to show even more grit if they wanted to get past the Bavarians who had won 11 times in a row at home in the competition.

Pep Guardiola acknowledged his time at Bayern will be judged on whether he can deliver a European title before he departs for England.

And just past the half hour mark his team take the lead. Arturo Vidal is tripped on the edge of the area by Jose Gimenez.

Xabi Alsonso's resulting free kick takes a huge deflection off the wall to level things up at 1-1 on aggregate.  A double whammy for Gimenez who, after giving away the foul, deflects the ball past Jan Oblak.

Things get even worse for the 21-year-old defender on 40 minutes when he is judged to have hauled down Javi Martinez in the area.

Thomas Mueller steps up to take the spot kick but Oblak guesses right then saves Alsono's rebound to keep Atleti in it.

That miss would prove to be costly. On 53 minutes, the homeside commit too many men forward which allows Fernando Torres the time and space to play a perfect pass to Antoine Griezmann, and the Frenchman scores to round off a swift counter attack.

So trailing 2-1 on aggregate and needing to score twice to cancel out Atletico's crucial away goal, Robert Lewandowski heads in from close range with 16 minutes remaining to make it an exciting final few minutes.

But 7 minutes later, the visitors are awarded a penalty. Torres cuts in from the left before being brought down by Martinez, just inside the area according to the referee. A closer inspection shows the challenge is made outside the box.

Torres fails to convert but it proves to be irrelevant as Atletico hold on to advance to the final on May 28th where they will either play Manchester City or Spanish rivals Real Madrid.

Bayern Munich 2 - Atletico Madrid 1

"We could have been more dangerous in the counter attacks and score more goals. You know, we have seen that we are very strong side and its unbelievable that we had a penalty saved. I just have to say:'How difficult is to play against Bayern Munich'. What I've learnt from this game and the way they perform, playing away, it's very impressive," said Diego Simeone, Atletico Madrid coach.