Madrid: Arsenal marked the holders of the Champions League, the Real Madrid superstars and the rich history of improbable returns to tear a 2-1 victory on Wednesday and reach the semi-finals with a superb global triumph 5-1.
The triumph of the first leg of the Gunners 3-0 in the quarter-final last week gave them a vital cushion in the Spanish capital when they made the Final Four for the first time since 2009, where they will face Paris Saint-Germain.
Bukayo Saka, who missed a penalty in the first half, sent Arsenal in advance and although Vinicius Junior equaled, the 15 times winners were never close to the deficit.
Gabriel Martinelli rubbed the salt in their injuries with a winner in time for Arsenal, who never lifted the Champions League trophy.
“We knew we were going to suffer but we knew we were going to win,” said Declan Rice, who scored two superb free kicks in the first stage TNT SPORTS.
“It’s such a special evening for this club, it’s a historic evening for this club … We want to win this competition.”
Los Blancos, much more fragile than when they won a Champions League and double the Liga last season, were convinced that they could change the game but created too little against the tight defense of Arsenal.
The Premier League team held its nerve to reach the semi-finals for the third time only in their history.
“It’s a difficult time … It was a difficult game, we did not have all the odds that we would have loved it,” said Movistar Lucas Vazquez de Madrid.
“We needed a little more with the ball, perhaps a little more patience to be able to unravel a very well organized defense – they did their job.”
Kylian Mbappe Hattest Home in the first steps, but was clearly offside, with the front gesture of the crowd to increase the volume to create the legendary aura which helps Madrid to make exploits almost impossible to the Santiago Bernabeu.
David Alaba was reserved for having hacked Saka while Madrid tried to add the grain that was seriously missing during their demolition in the first leg in London, and the Arsenal winger also had a well aligned disc by Thibaut Courtois.
Arsenal received a penalty apparently unexpected when the Var stand asked the French referee François Letexier to review an incident in a previous corner.
Raul Asencio fell to the Arsenal Mikel Merino striker in the region and LeTexier pointed the peak point, from the perplexity of the local crowd.
Recorded saka penalty
Saka intervened to take it, but his poorly executed panenka, sneaking on the left, was saved by Courtois.
This stimulated Real Madrid and soon they had their own penalty when Mbappe hit the lawn after rice fought with him.
However, after a long Var review, Letexier was called upon to take a second glance and he then decided that the hero of the first legs of Arsenal with two goals had not committed a fault on the French superstar.
The game breaks, with the Arsenal dally on each occasion, disturbed the momentum of Madrid and they had trouble threatening the artillerymen David Raya.
For the whole fanfaron of Madrid, the goalkeeper did not need to stop in the first half.
Martin Odegaard, confronted with his former employers whom he joined as `Wonderkid ” a decade ago, helped Arsenal ‘opening objective after 65 minutes.
The Norwegian linked himself to Merino, who slipped Saka behind and the Englishman made amends for his penalty error with a finish dressed in ice cooling.
Four goals in advance in the draw, Arsenal thought that their work was done, defender William Saliba does not focus on the edge of his box in possession.
Vinicius stole the ball into him and beat the Raya out of position at the level, two minutes after the opening of Saka.
Madrid’s increasingly thin hopes were destroyed when Mbappe was drinking with an ankle problem with 15 minutes remaining, and Martinelli secured with a fresh finish after Merino installed it.
