Real Madrid 1-2 Arsenal (1-5 agg): Gunners romp to Champions League semi-finals as Bukayo Saka recovers from missed penalty before Gabriel Martinelli scores in added time
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- Arsenal faced Real Madrid in their Champions League quarter-final second leg
- The Gunners headed into the clash at the Bernabeu with a 3-0 aggregate lead
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They had talked about a comeback all week in Madrid, Jude Bellingham had said. Since their 3-0 humbling at the Emirates, he had heard it over and over again.
Remontada, remontada, remontada. ‘Honestly, I’ve heard it about a million times,’ Bellingham had said on Tuesday.
But La Remontada never came. Real Madrid never even got close. They can talk about it all they want. They could have said it 10 million times and it wouldn’t have made a difference, because words are no substitutes for deeds and Arsenal let their quality do all their talking for them by securing a stunning victory at the home of the kings of Europe.
The greatest comeback in the cauldron of the Bernabeu last night was nothing to do with Real Madrid. It grew from the heart and the mind and the sublime left foot of Bukayo Saka, who showed courage as well as brilliance to inspire Arsenal to a 2-1 victory that eased them into the semi-finals of the Champions League, where they will face French giants Paris Saint-Germain.
Saka missed an early penalty for the Gunners and he missed it spectacularly, fluffing his attempt at a Panenka and seeing it saved by Thibaut Courtois. But Saka did not hide. He did not retreat. He was not consumed by regret.
He showed us the measure of the man he is by scoring a superb goal in the second half that gave his team the cushion they needed. Arsenal’s performance was gilded by a clinical stoppage-time solo effort from Gabriel Martinelli.
‘He is incredible,’ Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta said. ‘The penalty could have been a turning point emotionally in the game but the way he handled the situation, the personality he showed, at his age, in this stadium... incredible.’
In the end, Arsenal’s margin was comfortable. Very comfortable. When the final whistle blew, they had eased to a 5-1 aggregate victory that humbled the 15-time winners of this competition and exploded the idea that Madrid were somehow destined to win it again. The truth is Madrid were hugely disappointing. They were incoherent, disjointed and utterly lacking in subtlety and guile. Arsenal outplayed them last week and they outplayed them again here.
After the match, Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti faced a barrage of questions about his future at the club, insisting again and again that rumours he had already decided to quit were false.
By the end, the Arsenal fans high in the Gods in a corner of this magnificent stadium, were taunting their rival supporters. ‘You’ve only come to see the Arsenal,’ they sang over and over again. ‘You’ve only come to see the Arsenal.’
The Bernabeu had wound itself into a frenzy by kick-off. Even the choreography was perfect. The ranks of fans behind one goal, a thousand or more dressed all in white, held up a tifo of a bearded deity in Madrid colours, knocking over pawns on a chessboard.
Two of the pawns were dressed in the colours of Atletico Madrid and Manchester City, two of Madrid’s Champions League victims this season. There was one dressed in Arsenal red, too. The message was clear.
Every tackle by a Madrid player was met with a great roar of triumph, every Arsenal tackle by a baying for blood and revenge.
When Kylian Mbappe chested a cross into the net in the second minute, the roof nearly came off the Bernabeu. An offside flag ended the celebrations.
Arsenal were already causing the home side problems. Saka, in particular, picked up where he had left off at the Emirates and began to torture David Alaba down the Arsenal right. Alaba channelled Martin Keown and scythed through him. The Austrian was booked.
Then, 11 minutes in, there was another pause in the febrile pleadings of the crowd. French referee Francois Letexier halted play after a challenge on Mikel Merino by Raul Asencio that had gone unnoticed, except by VAR. Letexier checked it on the screen and awarded a penalty.
Saka stepped up to take it. In front of those hordes in all white. Saka is a fine penalty taker but this was not one of his best. He waited for Courtois to commit himself and tried to dink it over him with a Panenka. But it was poorly executed, too close to the goalkeeper, and Courtois stuck up a giant left hand to paw it away.
More frenetic energy surged around the stadium. Courtois celebrated wildly. Saka put his head in his hands. His team-mates ran up to him and consoled him. Madrid knew they had been reprieved.
In the 22nd minute, Asencio flicked on a free-kick and Mbappe flung himself to the ground, claiming he had been pulled back by Rice. Referee Letexier pointed to the spot again. It was the sixth time in seven Champions League games this season that he had awarded a spot-kick.
Rice was livid. He was adamant nothing had happened. Rudiger body-checked him away from the referee amid his protestations.
The VAR check went on and on and on. After four or five minutes, Letexier ran to the big screen. There was a suggestion Mbappe had strayed offside. There was also a suggestion his dive was unreasonably theatrical. Letexier signalled he was reversing his decision. Brave man.
There were seven minutes of stoppage time at the end of the half but Arsenal saw them out. They were defending brilliantly. Vinicius Junior ran time and time again at Jurrien Timber and Timber led him down a blind alley every single time.
Arsenal began the second half with assuredness. Martinelli led Lucas Vazquez a dance with a series of feints that enraged the Madrid players and Arsenal kept possession for so long that their fans started to accompany every touch with chants of ‘ole’.
Midway through the half, they got the goal they deserved. Saka started and finished the move, collecting a flick-on before laying the ball off, drifting across the face of the box and then ghosting on to a clever pass from Merino.
As Courtois rushed out, Saka lifted it over him with the deftest of touches. It was a goal in the spirit of a Panenka, the Panenka he had meant the first time.
But Arsenal’s lead did not last. Two minutes later, William Saliba was caught dawdling on the ball inside his own area by Vinicius, who had the simplest of tasks to scoop the ball into the net.
It was encouragement Madrid had not earned. They did not have the quality to build on it, though. Arsenal reasserted their dominance and never looked threatened before Martinelli put them out of their misery late on.
Arsenal will believe now they can win this competition for the first time in their history.
