Borussia Dortmund crushed Real Madrid 4-1 in the first leg of its Champions League semifinal Wednesday,.
Decked out in black and yellow, it swarmed around Real from the start with a buzz and infectious enthusiasm to be marveled at -- but it was left to one man to administer the fatal sting.
Robert Lewandowski, the Poland striker, was already one of the most feared forwards in European football before his took the field.
He left with his reputation enhanced four-fold, his asking price at an all-time high and his team within touching distance of next month's Champions League final.
His four goals lit up an extraordinary encounter in which Dortmund went from young pretenders to serious contenders.
Barring the prospect of miracles at Camp Nou and the Bernabeu next week, Dortmund will contest the first ever all-German Champions League final against Bayern Munich at Wembley on May 25.
"It was an unbelievable," Dortmund boss Jurgen Klopp told Sky Sports.
"It was a great game by my team. It was so difficult today because they are so strong and fast and they are so brilliant on the counterattack.
"The first 25 minutes were great and then we lost a bit of our game. Not so much but enough to let them come up.
"They got (level) and at the break we told the players: 'Maybe you think there was a wrong decision by the referee but in the last game we had a wrong decision from the referee and we had the winner. Go back to the strong first 25 minutes'."
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