Barcelona booked their place in the Champions League final despite a spirited fightback from Bayern Munich, who earned a 3-2 victory on the night in Germany but succumbed to a 5-3 aggregate defeat.
Trailing 3-0 from the first leg in Spain, the Bavarians went some way to cutting that defecit almost immediately through Mehdi Benatia’s header, but the red-hot Neymar soon equalised.
Neymar then scored again after hesitant home defending on the half hour mark, before the brilliant Marc-Andre ter Stegen somehow denied Robert Lewandowski at the other end.
Lewandowski levelled proceedings on the night with a fine individual goal and Thomas Muller curled home a third, but, in truth, Barcelona’s progress was never in doubt on their march to the final in Berlin.
Bayern’s defensive frailties became apparent almost immediately, with Neuer called into action to deny Ivan Rakitic who had easily escaped the offside trap.
The Bavarians then planted a seed of hope, Benatia heading home Xabi Alonso’s corner completely unmarked after seven minutes to fuel realistic thoughts of an unlikely comeback.
Barcelona, and their tantalising trio in attack, responded almost immediately to dash those hopes though; Lionel Messi brilliantly found Luis Suarez, who unselfishly squared for Neymar to tap into an empty net.
Lewandowski prodded straight at ter Stegen after some fine linkup with Muller, but Neymar was again on hand from Suarez’s clipped pass to slam home Barca’s second, duly silencing the home crowd.
Ter Stegen was having a superb game, and Neuer’s German understudy pulled off a miraculous save to deny Lewandowski soon after; first from point blank range and then to claw the effort off the line when it seemed destined to creep in.
Suarez was withdrawn at half time ahead of Barcelona’s crunch La Liga clash with Atletico Madrid at the weekend, and the Catalans’ endeavour and tempo certainly dropped after the break.
Lewandowski finally got the better of ter Stegen just before the hour mark, as he superbly engineered space on the edge of the box before clipping his shot in off the inside of the post.
Muller then curled home a third to earn Bayern some pride in the fact they snatched victory on the night, but Barcelona, spearheaded by their fantastic attacking triumvirate, comfortably reached their first Champions League final since 2011.
As for Bayern, Pep Guardiola's side at least ended a run of four straight defeats since wrapping up the Bundesliga title, but the German champions will be left to reflect on a second convincing Champions League semi-final exit in two seasons.
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