Part of the anticipation for a Champions League final is dictated in the semi-finals, often by a player who takes control of a tie and suggests that he could perhaps bend the competition's climax to his will too. Sometimes it proves to be the case and sometimes it doesn't, as a quick recall of—to pick three random examples—Pavel Nedved in 2003, Lionel Messi in 2011 or Robert Lewandowski in 2013 tells us.
The player who made this year's last four wasn't a forward or an attacking midfielder. He wouldn't be considered as one of the standouts in his team on the basis of the season as a whole.