\n<\/p>\n
Our Champions League semi-final hangs in the balance heading to Emirates Stadium next week as a pair of penalties saw us draw the first leg at Atletico Madrid.<\/strong><\/p>\n We struck first when Viktor Gyokeres blasted us into the lead just before half-time after being brought down in the box, but after a period of pressure after the restart, Julian Alverez also netted from 12 yards to level things up.<\/p>\n A third spot-kick was awarded with 13 minutes to play when Ebere Eze was brought down inside the box but a VAR intervention saw the decision overturned, denying us the opportunity to cap a fine display with a victory before the sides meet again in N5 in six days\u2019 time.<\/p>\n As the be expected, the Metropolitano Stadium was a cauldron of noise as the teams emerged from the tunnel, surrounded by thousands of ribbons of toilet roll raining down from all four stands. It was quite a spectacle befitting of the occasion, and our early aim was to dampen the atmosphere down.<\/p>\n That we achieved by weathering the early pressure from the hosts, with David Raya called into action for the first time on 13 minutes to push away a Julian Alvarez effort from outside the area. <\/p>\n But we enjoyed plenty of good possession in the Atleti half ourselves, and moments later a fine pass by Declan Rice allowed Gyokeres to drive into the box and his centre found its way to Martin Odegaard, but a superb last-ditch challenge by Johnny Cardoso managed to block our skipper\u2019s shot.<\/p>\n The two teams kept pushing for the opener. Alvarez saw a headed float over the crossbar before Noni Madueke dribbled inside from the right and let fly but again couldn\u2019t quite trouble Jan Oblak, but it was another signal of intent.<\/p>\n And just before half-time, our adventure was rewarded when we were handed the perfect chance to open the semi-final scoring when Martin Zubimendi knocked the ball into Gyokeres inside the box, and a clumsy challenge by David Hancko bundled our striker to the ground. <\/p>\n The referee pointed to the spot, and despite lengthy protests from the home side and deafening whistles from their supporters, Gyokeres dusted himself off, kept his cool and emphatically hammered the spot-kick past Oblak to register his 19th goal of the campaign and send us into the changing rooms ahead.<\/p>\n The second half began with Atleti seeking a quick way back into the game. Alvarez lined up a free-kick from a similar range to one he netted against Barcelona in the quarter-final but rippled the side netting, before Ademola Lookman blasted a shot straight at Raya and Antoine Griezmann saw the rebound deflect over.<\/p>\n However after a couple of corners, the hosts were handed their own chance to score from the spot when a volley from Marcos Llorente bounced and hit Ben White on the hand, and after a VAR check Alvarez stepped up and drilled the ball past a helpless Raya.<\/p>\n The pressure continued and Griezmann went close again when he slipped but saw his effort still crash off the corner of post and bar before our defence put their bodies on the line again to divert a second attempt from the Frenchman away, while a freat opportunity fell Lookman\u2019s way on 73 minutes but he shot straight at Raya when well-placed eight yards out.<\/p>\n Mikel Arteta opted to change his front during this spell, and with 13 minutes to play, Bukayo Saka found Ebere Eze inside the box who was fouled by Hancko and again, Danny Makkelie pointed to the spot. However, a lengthy VAR check sent him to the monitor to reassess his decision, which he controversially overturned given there was obvious contact.<\/p>\n Undeterred, we kept seeking another goal and another replacement Cristhian Mosquera carved out a shooting chance but sent it straight to Oblak, while Rice took aim from 25 yards and was a whisker away from hitting the target with the keeper scrambling.<\/p>\n While we couldn\u2019t quite get back in front, the draw sees us equal our longest-ever unbeaten run in the competition of 13 games, set when we last reached the final in 2006. And with the second leg to be played in front of our own supporters, we have every chance of emulating that great side and reaching our second showpiece.<\/p>\n We’re back in action on Saturday when Fulham head to Emirates Stadium in the Premier League, before Atletico do the same three days later for the second leg of this semi-final. Then we’ll flip back to domestic affairs when we travel to West Ham United on Sunday, May 10.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Copyright 2026 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Our Champions League semi-final hangs in the balance heading to Emirates Stadium next week as…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2421,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}POSITIVE START<\/h2>\n
A PENALTY APIECE<\/h2>\n
WAS INTERVENTED<\/h2>\n
WHAT’S NEXT<\/h2>\n