From Stoke to a warm Wednesday night in Madrid: Real's Joselu delivers on big stage

Introduced in the 81st minute with Madrid trailing 1-0 on the night and heading for a semi-final defeat, Joselu completely turned the tie on its head in just 10 minutes as he scored a quickfire brace to allow his side to come back and win 2-1, progressing 4-3 on aggregate.

AFP Sport looks at three things about Madrid's unlikely goal hero Joselu:

Back-to-back relegations

Prior to re-joining serial winners Real Madrid on loan in July 2023, Joselu was somewhat of a journeyman footballer, having played for Real Madrid B, Newcastle, Hannover and Stoke City, to name but some of his previous employers.

His two most recent teams, Alaves and Espanyol - from whom he is on loan at Madrid - were in fact relegated from La Liga in the last two seasons prior to the current campaign.

Late bloomer

Joselu represented Spain's youth categories from U19 to U21 but never made the step up to become a full international until much older.

The Real Madrid forward earned his first cap in March 2023 then aged 32 years, 11 months and 26 days.

He now has 10 international caps and has scored five goals for La Roja, including a brace on his debut in a 3-0 win against Norway.

German roots

Although Joselu represents the Spanish national team, the striker was actually born in West Germany in 1990.

Indeed he was born in the city of Stuttgart, a major German city in the south of the country and a traditional local rival of Bayern.