Preview: Arsenal v Atletico Madrid | Match preview | News
In what is possibly the biggest night in Emirates Stadium history, we host Atletico Madrid in the second leg of our Champions League semi-final on Tuesday (8pm UK), looking to reach the final for the first time since our home was opened in 2006.
Viktor Gyokeres and Julian Alavrez traded penalties in the Spanish capital six days ago, leaving the door open for either to take their place in the final in Budapest at the end of the month, when only Bayern Munich or Paris Saint-Germain will stand in the way of a first European Cup triumph for both clubs.
Having remained unbeaten in all 13 of our Champions League matches so far this season, including five of six on home soil, Mikel Arteta’s men will hope home advantage will pay off, with history – figuratively and literally – on our doorstep.
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Highlights: Atletico Madrid 1-1 Arsenal
ATLETI FRESH AND FOCUSED
After a massive summer reshuffle Diego Simeone’s team initially struggled, winning just one of their first five La Liga games. A run of nine wins from the next 10, including a 5-2 demolition of Real Madrid, reignited title ambitions heading into December but they soon slipped away again. They went into last week’s first leg with one win from their previous six domestic matches, including a defeat to Real Sociedad in the Copa del Rey final on penalties.
Despite that, they look locked to qualify for next season’s Champions League, and with that in mind, Simeone opted to rest the entire starting XI that faced us last week when they travelled to Valencia, including handing debuts to two players. One of those, Iker Luque, opened the scoring before 18-year-old Cubo added a second, leaving them fourth in the table with four games to go.
A 14th-place finish in the Champions League league phase set up a play-off round meeting with Club Brugge, where they advanced 7-4 on aggregate. They then beat Tottenham 7-5 on aggregate to set up an all-Spanish clash with Barca, and after winning 2-0 at the Nou Camp, a 2-1 defeat was enough to progress to the semis for the seventh time, but the first since 2016/17.
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Everything you need to know about Atletico Madrid
WHAT THE MANAGERS SAY
Arteta: “I can’t wait. I feel the energy in and amongst the team and our supporters, so these are the moments that we want to live together. We had a lot of work as a club, as a team, after 20 years to be in this position again, and we are so hungry to get a game that we want tomorrow and go through to the final.
“How tough is it to be in the position that we are in? Our history tells us. The level of every team and the competition shows every day that being here deserves a lot of credit to everybody that is involved. We know where we want to be.”
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Simeone: “It’s nothing more than a football match, and whoever plays better will have a better chance of winning. Within that, each team has our own strengths, and we’ll do our thing to try to make the most of our strengths, and I’m sure the Arsenal coach will try to maximise theirs.
“I’m going to try to tell the team to play like they did in the second half. Let’s see. If it’s that easy, it would be great. We have a lot of faith in what we’re doing. We’re convinced and confident about what we want to achieve in the match, and then, obviously, the result won’t depend solely on us.”
TEAM NEWS
Mikel Arteta has revealed that Martin Odegaard and Kai Havertz will both be included in the matchday squad after both missing recent matches through injury.
That leaves Jurrien Timber and Mikel Merino as our only absentees who have been out for a while with groin and foot issues respectively.
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Go Inside Training ahead of semi-final second leg
As for Atletico, central midfielder Pablo Barrios remains out with a hamstring injury, while winger Nicolas Gonzalez missed both the first leg and the weekend’s game against Valencia with a thigh problem.
Julian Alvarez, Alexander Sorloth and Giuliano Simeone also took a back seat for the La Liga game on Saturday to rest their knocks and should be fine, while veteran centre-back Jose Gimenez joined them in the travelling party having sat out the last eight games.
TALKING TACTICS
Adrian Clarke, writing in the official matchday programme: Not too many head coaches at the highest level use a 4-4-2, but it’s a shape which suits Diego Simeone’s industrious side very well. During the first half last week, they were relatively circumspect out of possession, but after the break that strategy changed dramatically as they got touch-tight all over the pitch, pressing us with ferocious intensity.
Atletico are highly dangerous on transitions, and no team in this season’s Champions League has netted more goals from fast breaks (7). The Spaniards are fit and physically strong, so athleticism plays a key role in their success. Boasting a great appetite to disrupt opponents, none of the 36 sides in the competition has won more duels, tackles or interceptions.
Alvarez is a brilliant all-round striker, capable of winning any match with a moment of magic, while his corners and free-kicks are also of the very highest standard, helping Atleti score the highest number of set-piece goals (10) in this season’s competition, as well as net in all 15 European outings this term.
On the flip side, they have faced 202 shots in those matches, so there is a sense that you will get opportunities to score against them. Defending set pieces has been problematic, and after letting in nine goals from corners and wide free-kicks, they may be apprehensive whenever we stand over a dead ball.
FACTS AND STATS
We are unbeaten in our last eight games against Spanish sides in the Champions League. Only one team has gone more consecutive games against Spanish opposition without losing in the competition since 1992/93: Chelsea between March 2006 and April 2014 (16).
Atletico Madrid have lost six of their last seven away games against English sides in the Champions League, including each of the last four.
When avoiding defeat away from home in the first leg of a European Cup/UEFA Champions League knockout stage tie (over two legs), we have gone on to progress in eight of our previous 10, including the last five in a row.
We have lost only two of our last 23 Champions League matches (W17 D4), both against PSG in last season’s semi-finals. We could go 14 consecutive matches without defeat for the first time in our European Cup history.
Atletico have progressed from two of their five previous Champions League knockout ties when failing to win the first leg at home, with both coming against English opposition (Chelsea in 2013/14 semi-finals & Manchester United in 2021/22 last 16).
Atleti have won just one of their last seven away matches in the knockout stages of the Champions League, although that came in their most recent via a 2-0 victory at Barcelona last month.
We average just 0.65 goals conceded per game under Mikel Arteta in the Champions League (24 conceded in 37 games). This is the lowest goals conceded per game ratio for any manager with 20+ games in the competition, ahead of Frank Rijkaard (0.68).
Julian Alvarez has averaged a goal or assist every 80 minutes in his Champions League career (34 in 2,710 minutes – 25 goals, 9 assists). Of strikers with 20+ goal involvements in the competition, only Erling Haaland (74) has a better ratio.
MATCH OFFICIALS
Daniel Siebert heads an all-German officiating team for this game. He has been a Bundesliga referee since 2012 and was added to the FIFA list two years later. A part-time teacher, he refereed at Euro 2020, the 2022 World Cup and Euro 2024.
It’s a quick reunion with Sibert as he oversaw our 1-0 win at Sporting Lisbon in the previous round, while we have also beaten Dinamo Zagreb 3-0 in the Champions League league phase in January 2025 and a 3-1 victory at Olympiakos in the Europa League last 16 back in March 2021. In eight Champions League games this season, he has issued 38 yellow cards, two reds and awarded one penalty.
Referee: Daniel Siebert
Assistants: Jan Seidel, Rafael Foltyn
Fourth official: Tobias Stieler
OUR: Bastian Dankert
Assistant VAR: Robert Schroder
PREVIOUS MEETINGS
This is the second time we have faced Atletico Madrid in a European semi-final, with the first coming in the 2017/18 Europa League. Things were looking promising in the home leg when Sime Vrsalijko was sent off after 10 minutes and Alexandre Lacazette put us in front, but his international teammate Griezmann struck eight minutes from time to level things up heading to Spain, before a Diego Costa goal in the second leg settled the tie.
Back in October, we finally played each other in the Champions League when Atleti travelled to Emirates Stadium for a league-phase encounter, but departed on the end of a 4-0 defeat, with a brace from Viktor Gyokeres plus strikes from Gabriel and Gabriel Martinelli seeing us cruise to victory.
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LIVE COVERAGE
Tune into Arsenal.com and The Arsenal app (download now on iOS/Android) from an hour before kick-off for the best build-up for our Champions League semi-final second leg! Nicole Holliday and Jeremie Aliadiere will be on hosting duties, bring you the usual mix of special guests, fun and games with our studio guests and a peek behind the scenes from the training ground.
Then from kick-off, Dan Roebuck and Adrian Clarke will be on commentary to talk you through all the action as we hope to make it to the final in Budapest.
You can also find out how to watch the game on TVwherever you are in the world.
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How to watch Arsenal v Atletico Madrid live on TV
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