THE EURO FILES: The Year of the Underdog! Joselu and Edin Terzic are proof you can always earn another chance… PLUS, why Jadon Sancho makes my Champions League XI

Football always gives you another chance. If you’re Bayer Leverkusen, it probably comes in stoppage time.

During their record-breaking 49-match unbeaten run, Xabi Alonso’s team scored 17 goals in stoppage time, 11 of them decisive to avoid defeat.

But others require more patience. Olympiacos coach Jose Luis Mendilibar and Borussia Dortmund manager Edin Terzic had to wait seven and 12 months respectively for their next big opportunity. And Real Madrid striker Joselu waited 13 years.

It was May 2011 when the now 34-year-old had his first big night at the Santiago Bernabeu. Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho brought him on as a substitute for Karim Benzema and thanks to an assist from Cristiano Ronaldo in the 87th minute, he scored the final goal in an 8–1 win over Almeria.

Joselu had scored 14 goals for the B team that season and 19 the following year. But he was sold to Hoffenheim for £4.7 million and there began an odyssey that would take him to Frankfurt, Hannover, Stoke, Newcastle, Alaves and Espanyol before Madrid said they wanted him back last summer.

The forward endured two unsuccessful spells in the Premier League before making his comeback in his mid-30s

“Nobody else has my profile in the squad,” he told Mail Sport in an interview last month, when asked about anyone who expected him not to stay at the club this summer after the end of his loan deal due to the expected arrival from Kylian. Mbappe from Paris Saint-Germain.

This week, as Mbappé bowed out of the Champions League with PSG’s 1-0 defeat to Dortmund and was rated two out of ten in L’Equipe’s brutal ratings, Joselu was given high marks for goals Nos 16 and 17 of his season as Madrid Wrapping up Bayern Munich.

Joselu has only played 1,900 minutes, so if he scores a goal every 112 minutes he has the best success rate of the squad.

The fact that he will cost Madrid just £1.3 million to keep him, that he is captain Dani Carvajal’s brother-in-law, one of Jude Bellingham’s best friends on the training ground (he has nicknamed him Crouchy) and huge effective could mean he stays next season. But even if that’s not the case, he will be in the Champions League final on June 1 after two seasons of relegation, at Alaves and then at Espanyol, and more than a decade after he thought his last chance at Madrid was gone .

Dortmund coach Terzic was in tears at Signal Iduna Park on the final day of last season, speechless in front of the Yellow Wall who had continued to sing for the players despite losing the league title with a draw against Mainz. Now the club that still manages to sell season tickets for just £163 will earn £86 million for reaching the Champions League final.

The combination of UEFA payments based on passing rounds, market pool, coefficients and group stage win bonuses will be boosted by the receipt of a further £3.9 million if Dortmund beat Madrid at Wembley.

No one is giving them many chances, but they are used to that since they topped a group that included Newcastle, AC Milan and PSG.

As a Dortmund fan, Terzic cried last May not only about the lost glory of a title, but also about the economic damage failure would inflict on the club he supports. Now, twelve months later, they have arrived.

Equally happy with their coach are Olympiacos, 6-2 winners over Aston Villa and into the final of the Europa Conference League, where Mendilibar will lead them against Fiorentina on May 29 at the home of their great rivals AEK Athens. He was sacked by Sevilla in October, just eight games into the season.

Meanwhile, Edin Terzic faces the mammoth task of beating Real Madrid in the Champions League final

Sevilla had won just twice and were struggling to balance league play and the Champions League, which the 63-year-old had led them to by winning the Europa League last season.

Some believe that Mendilibar is old-fashioned. He told Spanish football magazine Panenka: ‘No one plays long balls into space anymore. Not everything has to be done on foot.’

He was also accused of ‘never winning anything’ before his Europa League win last season. This despite winning the fifth, fourth, third and second divisions in Spain.

Sevilla replaced Mendilibar with Uruguayan coach Diego Alonso, who failed to win any of the eight league games he was in charge of before being sacked. Mendilibar didn’t hesitate when Olympiacos called in February and now that Sevilla are in mid-table without him, he is back in the European final.

For ‘Mendi’, Terzic and Joselu’s football has given them another chance and this week each man grabbed his with both hands.

Sancho, Bellingham and Kane fly the flag in my Champions League XI

The final word on the season’s Champions League team will not be given until the final, but an XI based on performances in the quarter-finals and semi-finals includes three English players plus one player on loan from an English club.

Ian Maatsen was unwanted and was set to return to Burnley for a second season last summer. But there hasn’t been a better left back in the tournament.

Jadon Sancho becomes the first Manchester United player since the Sir Alex Ferguson era to reach the Champions League final, and there is no one better for the right side of the attack. Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane are also participating.

Terzic has breathed new life into Jadon Sancho since the winger joined on loan from Manchester United

Is this the end for Toni Kroos?

Toni Kroos looked like he was saying goodbye to the Santiago Bernabeu on Wednesday when the German, instead of following his Real Madrid teammates through the tunnel after their raucous post-match celebrations after their victory over Bayern Munich, remained on the pitch staring at above. in the empty stands, eventually joined by his wife and children.

As one of the individuals of the football world, it would be right up his alley to retire from club football with Madrid at Wembley and then leave international football after the European Championship.

Meanwhile, Toni Kroos could be looking to reach the ultimate pinnacle after reaching yet another European final

Not that there have been any signs during Madrid’s games against Manchester City and Bayern that the 34-year-old Kroos is anywhere near past his best.

He and 38-year-old Luka Modric will meet with club president Florentino Perez next week to discuss whether to stay or leave. Both can win a sixth Champions League winners’ medal against Borussia Dortmund. Neither can ever be properly replaced.