Two years ago, Joselu Mato was just another Real Madrid fan cheering in the stands of the Stade de France as it won a record-extending 14th European Cup.
On Wednesday, the journeyman striker scored two late goals to achieve another memorable Madrid comeback in a 2-1 win over Bayern Munich and send them back to the Champions League final.
“I try and make the most of my chances,” the 34-year-old Joselu said. “As for two years ago, this is how it feels to be a Real Madrid fan. I had the opportunity to go and support Madrid and now I get to experience it first hand.”
Much like Madrid’s run to the 2022 final when Karim Benzema and Rodrygo stunned rivals with late goals in comeback victories over Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea and Manchester City, it was the turn of the modest Joselu to etch his name into the club’s long Champions League lore against mighty Bayern.
“It’s a dream come true to have nights like this," he said. "My dreams aren’t as beautiful as what happened. As a forward, you dream of scoring goals, and if they’re like this then even better.”
Joselu's arrival last summer was not a typical Real Madrid move. The powerhouse normally likes to make huge blockbuster moves such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale, Jude Bellingham, etc., or develop young talents like Rodrygo, Vinícius Júnior and Eduardo Camavinga.
Joselu, in turn, was an aging striker who quietly made a fine career providing goals for small teams whose main objective is just avoiding relegation.
Born in Stuttgart, Germany, Joselu returned to Spain with his family as a young child. After starting his career at Celta Vigo, he was signed by Madrid for its reserve team before he strung together stints with German clubs Eintracht Frankfurt, Hoffenheim, Hannover and English clubs Stoke and Newcastle.
He reached his prime on returning to the Spanish league in 2019, scoring in double digits in his three seasons at Alaves and his single campaign with Espanyol. That earned him his international debut with Spain at age 32.
Even so, his goals could not save Alaves or Espanyol from being relegated in consecutive seasons.
And that was when opportunity knocked.
After Espanyol went down last year, Madrid secured him on a one-season loan from the Barcelona-based club now playing in the second division.
Madrid must have seen that Joselu's proven ability to poach goals, win high balls, score with one touch and with headers, could fill a hole in its squad of speedsters, skilled dribblers, and passers.
Madrid had just lost Benzema, its top scorer, who left for Saudi Arabia, but Joselu was clearly not a replacement for the 2022 Ballon d’Or winner. Even if Madrid was going to wait another year in its pursuit of Kylian Mbappé, then Joselu was still at best a bench player, a substitute for Carlo Ancelotti to toss into the box in the final minutes hoping to connect with a last-gasp cross or corner.
And that was exactly what Joselu did on Wednesday when Bayern was up a goal and Madrid was once again needing to conjure up a bit of that Bernabeu magic.
Joselu’s moment came when goalkeeper Manuel Neuer marred his outstanding night by spilling an apparently routine save of a shot by Vinícius. Joselu knew he had to be close just in case and, sure enough, the ball fell to his feet for an easy tap in for the 88th-minute equalizer.
“A striker always has to be active in the area, ready for a loose ball,” Joselu said. “When I saw the bounce the ball took I knew that anything could happen, and I was prepared to take advantage of that opportunity.”
Madrid wasn’t done, and it was Joselu who arrived to knock in a cross from central defender Antonio Rüdiger for the stoppage-time winner.
Joselu has far surpassed expectations at Madrid with his highly productive 17 goals across all competitions in limited minutes.
He will have a chance to play in a Champions League final, especially if Madrid finds itself trailing on the scoreboard, against Borussia Dortmund on June 1 in London.
“He’s a reflection of the team because he has contributed so much this season,” Ancelotti said about Joselu. “He hasn’t had a lot of game time but he’s the perfect reflection of what this team is all about. He has given us so much, without ever losing confidence in what he’s capable of.”
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Real Madrid's Joselu, centre, celebrates with his teammates after scoring his side's opening goal during the Champions League semifinal second leg soccer match between Real Madrid and Bayern Munich at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, May 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Breton)
Real Madrid's Joselu reacts after winning the Champions League semifinal second leg soccer match between Real Madrid and Bayern Munich at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, May 8, 2024. Real Madrid won 2-1. (AP Photo/Jose Breton)
Real Madrid's Joselu celebrates after winning the Champions League semifinal second leg soccer match between Real Madrid and Bayern Munich at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, May 8, 2024. Real Madrid won 2-1. (AP Photo/Jose Breton)
JERUSALEM (AP) — The helicopter crash in which Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, the country’s foreign minister and other officials were killed is likely to reverberate across the Middle East, where Iran’s influence runs wide and deep.
That's because Iran has spent decades supporting armed groups and militants in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and the Palestinian territories, allowing it to project power and potentially deter attacks from the United States or Israel, the sworn enemies of its 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Tensions have never been higher than they were last month, when Iran under Raisi and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei launched hundreds of drones and ballistic missiles at Israel in response to an airstrike on an Iranian Consulate in Syria that killed two Iranian generals and five officers.
Israel, with the help of the United States, Britain, Jordan and others, intercepted nearly all the projectiles. In response, Israel apparently launched its own strike against an air defense radar system in the Iranian city of Isfahan, causing no casualties but sending an unmistakable message.
The sides have waged a shadow war of covert operations and cyberattacks for years, but the exchange of fire in April was their first direct military confrontation.
The ongoing war between Israel and Hamas has drawn in other Iranian allies, with each attack and counterattack threatening to set off a wider war.
It's a combustible mix that could be ignited by unexpected events, such as Sunday's deadly crash.
Israel has long viewed Iran as its greatest threat because of Tehran's controversial nuclear program, its ballistic missiles and its support for armed groups sworn to Israel's destruction.
Iran views itself as the chief patron of Palestinian resistance to Israeli rule, and top officials for years have called for Israel to be wiped off the map.
Raisi, who was a hard-liner viewed as a protégé and possible successor of Khamenei, chastised Israel last month, saying “the Zionist Israeli regime has been committing oppression against the people of Palestine for 75 years.”
“First of all we have to expel the usurpers, secondly we should make them pay the cost for all the damages they have created, and thirdly, we have to bring to justice the oppressor and usurper," he said.
Israel is believed to have carried out numerous attacks over the years targeting senior Iranian military officials and nuclear scientists.
There is no evidence Israel was involved in Sunday's helicopter crash, and Israeli officials have not commented on the incident.
Arab countries on the Persian Gulf have also long viewed Iran with suspicion, a key factor in the decision of the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain to normalize relations with Israel in 2020, and of Saudi Arabia to consider such a move.
Iran has provided financial and other support over the years to the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which led the Oct. 7 attack into Israel that triggered the Gaza war, and the smaller but more radical Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which took part in it. But there is no evidence that Iran was directly involved in the attack.
Since the start of the war, Iran's leaders have expressed solidarity with the Palestinians. Their allies in the region have gone much further.
Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group, Iran's most militarily advanced proxy, has waged a low-intensity conflict with Israel since the start of the Gaza war. The two sides have traded strikes on a near-daily basis along the Israel-Lebanon border, forcing tens of thousands of people on both sides to flee.
So far, however, the conflict has not boiled over into a full-blown war that would be disastrous for both countries.
Iran-backed militias in Syria and Iraq launched repeated attacks on U.S. bases in the opening months of the war but pulled back after U.S. retaliatory strikes for a drone attack that killed three American soldiers in January.
Yemen's Houthi rebels, another ally of Iran, have repeatedly targeted international shipping in what they portray as a blockade of Israel. Those strikes, which often target ships with no apparent links to Israel, have also drawn U.S.-led retaliation.
Iran's influence extends beyond the Middle East and its rivalry with Israel.
Israel and Western countries have long suspected Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons in the guise of a peaceful atomic program in what they see as a threat to non-proliferation everywhere.
Then-President Donald Trump's withdrawal from a landmark nuclear pact between Iran and world powers in 2018, and his imposition of crushing sanctions, led Iran to gradually abandon all the limits placed on its program by the deal.
These days, Iran is enriching uranium to up to 60% purity — near weapons-grade levels of 90%. Surveillance cameras installed by the U.N. nuclear agency have been disrupted, and Iran has barred some of the agency's most experienced inspectors. Iran has always insisted its nuclear program is for purely peaceful purposes, but the United States and others believe it had an active nuclear weapons program until 2003.
Israel is widely believed to be the only nuclear-armed power in the Middle East but has never acknowledged having such weapons.
Iran has also emerged as a key ally of Russia following its invasion of Ukraine, and is widely accused of supplying exploding drones that have wreaked havoc on Ukraine's cities. Raisi himself denied the allegations last fall in an interview with The Associated Press, saying Iran had not supplied such weapons since the outbreak of hostilities in February 2022.
Iranian officials have made contradictory comments about the drones, while U.S. and European officials say the sheer number being used in the war in Ukraine shows that the flow of such weapons has intensified since the war began.
In this photo provided by Moj News Agency, rescue teams' vehicles are seen near the site of the incident of the helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in Varzaghan in northwestern Iran, Sunday, May 19, 2024. A helicopter carrying President Raisi, the country's foreign minister and other officials apparently crashed in the mountainous northwest reaches of Iran on Sunday, sparking a massive rescue operation in a fog-shrouded forest as the public was urged to pray. (Azin Haghighi/Moj News Agency via AP)
An Iranian woman prays for President Ebrahim Raisi in a ceremony at Vali-e-Asr square in downtown Tehran, Iran, Sunday, May 19, 2024. A helicopter carrying President Raisi, the country's foreign minister and other officials apparently crashed in the mountainous northwest reaches of Iran on Sunday, sparking a massive rescue operation in a fog-shrouded forest as the public was urged to pray. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
People pray for President Ebrahim Raisi in a ceremony at Vali-e-Asr square in downtown Tehran, Iran, Sunday, May 19, 2024. A helicopter carrying President Raisi, the country's foreign minister and other officials apparently crashed in the mountainous northwest reaches of Iran on Sunday, sparking a massive rescue operation in a fog-shrouded forest as the public was urged to pray. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
FILE - People gather around a component from an intercepted ballistic missile that fell near the Dead Sea in Israel, Saturday, April 20, 2024. The apparent crash of a helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, the country's foreign minister and other top officials is likely to reverberate across the Middle East. Tensions have soared since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, and Israel and Iran directly traded fire for the first time ever in April. (AP Photo/Itamar Grinberg, File)
FILE - Iranian worshippers chant slogans during an anti-Israeli gathering after Friday prayers in Tehran, Iran, Friday, April 19, 2024. The apparent crash of a helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, the country's foreign minister and other top officials is likely to reverberate across the Middle East. Tensions have soared since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, and Israel and Iran directly traded fire for the first time ever in April. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)
