Arsenal come of age in the Bernabeu: the full story of their Madrid masterclass | OneFootball

Saka’s redemption after fluffing his Penenka penalty defines the night the Gunners tamed the 15-times European champions

Twice in the blinding hell of the Bernabeu, Arsenal had an easy escape route to kinder light. Twice, instead, they chose darkness, and picked a way through it with a staggering lack of alarm.

In a performance of astounding authority, Mikel Arteta’s side marched into the semi-finals of the Champions League, making footnotes of twin blunders en route to one of the finest results in their European history.

The talk in the build-up had been of the aura of Real Madrid, of how, even trailing 3-0 from the first leg, these 15-times kings of the continent had history and some illogical present and future on their side. Yet twice Arsenal shot themselves with moments that might have set the nerves of a less steeled team on edge, Bukayo Saka missing an early penalty that would have settled the tie, then William Saliba’s clanger giving it resuscitation after the Englishman’s dink had all-but declared it dead.

In both instances, though, Arsenal refused to panic, resetting immediately to a game state that had them in command, Madrid left flinging aimless crosses into the penalty area having exhausted a limited plan and getting nowhere.

Gabriel Martinelli’s runaway clincher in stoppage time made it 5-1 on aggregate and ensured that easily the best side over two legs won them both. So utterly nullified were Madrid and Europe’s most star-studded front-four that their one goal in 180 minutes came from a tackle.

Clincher: Saka chips the ball over Courtois to score Arsenal’s first goal

AP

There were twin prizes claimed by Arsenal here, not merely progress to the last-four for only the third time in their history, but also the preservation of those first leg memories, of those Declan Rice free-kicks and the most joyous single night of the Emirates era, now confirmed as something of lasting substance as well.

A night for heroes

Where to start with individual performances? Saliba and Saka, missteps apart, were exceptional across the two legs, two players whose swagger you might suggest would suit the Real way of life if not for recent proclamations of loyalty to the Arsenal shirt. But there were unlikely heroes, too, in Jakub Kiwior and Mikel Merino, terrific at top and tail. The latter claimed through-ball assists for both goals, timely reminders amid some superb centre-forward play that he is a player more at home in midfield.

Then there were Myles Lewis-Skelly and Jurrien Timber, one dogged in shutting out Vinicius Jr as a conventional full-back, the other producing what has already become a routinely audacious display for an 18-year-old carrying out two tasks at once.

The man of the match, the tie and the round, though, was Rice. There are a few £100million midfielders knocking around in the Premier League and at least one, in Jude Bellingham, who would be worth more than that in opposition here. Across two legs, though, the 26-year-old delivered the kind of showcase that elevates a career, monstering the great midfielder of the previous generation in Luka Modric in the first fixture, then asserting himself as maybe the best of his own here.

And what of Mikel Arteta, who again called his mentor Pep Guardiola for advice on the morning of the game but has now completed the biggest personal triumph of his managerial career? He has brought Arsenal back to a level they had not reached in 16 years and now has them dreaming, with good reason, of a place the biggest club never to lift the European Cup has never been before.

Man of the match: Declan Rice was the standout player in both legs against Real Madrid

Arsenal FC via Getty Images

“I could feel the team, that we are ready to compete against anybody,” said the Spaniard, whose side now face Paris Saint-Germain at the end of this month and early next. “We have to continue to do that because I think we have some momentum now. It’s a team that you can feel today how hungry, how determined, and the ambition that it’s got. We’re going for more for sure.”

Killing La Remontada

It had been difficult to recall a tie so split at the midway point between probability and consensus. No English side had ever blown a three-goal lead at this stage of a Champions League tie; Arsenal had never done so in any European competition. This Gunners iteration had gone 78 matches without conceding three goals; this Real had only just emerged from a run of no clean sheets in 10.

Add up the numbers, and the bookmakers made the Gunners long, long odds-on favourites to go through. The discourse, though, had the chances of a turnaround somewhere closer to 50/50.

A week ago, Bellingham had admitted the Spanish side would need a miracle, “something unbelievably special, something crazy”. Fast-forward seven nights and he was talking of a comeback as “nailed on”. Among Madristas, the talk of Remontada was relentless. To Arsenal supporters, the opposite trend had been in effect. While few skipped home after the first-leg proclaiming the tie over, as the second leg crept closer, though, so too did the dread and fear.

The Arsenal fans who had travelled, with or without tickets, gathered in good voice in Playa Mayor, having come by road or rail from airports all across Spain to dodge the airline price hikes.

Inside the refurbished, roof-closed Bernabeu, though, they were drowned out early on, by a home crowd who had the same muffling effect on the stadium announcer as he read out the visiting team. Desperate to emerge above the noise, French referee Francois Letexier and his officiating team did their best to turn a European quarter-final into a game of pedantry.

Arsenal were gifted a penalty which no one but the VAR seemed to want or see, Raul Ascenio pulling back Merino when his countryman was not in the same postcode as the ball. Saka gifted it back with a Panenka that was the worst of all worlds, lacking height, pace or accuracy, even having done the hard part by making Thibaut Courtois commit one way.

And had Letexier had his way, it might have done plenty. Soon after, Kylian Mbappe — pocketed for the most part by Saliba — latched onto Rice and threw himself to the ground, prompting a five-minute review that eventually saw Letexier overturn his own spot-kick call.

“I knew it wasn’t a penalty,” Rice said afterwards, but how could anyone be confident that, in this setting, he would be let off the hook?

Jude Bellingham cuts a frustrated figure in defeat to Arsenal at the Bernabeu

REUTERS

“This is the first time I’m sitting on that bench and I realised why anything can happen in this stadium,” Arteta admitted afterwards. “The capacity they have to create chaos and uncertainty. Things just happen.”

The incidents helped create a stop-start half, the kind Arsenal would have snatched on Wednesday morning when, with their Four Seasons hotel lacking appropriate space, they carried out their tactical walkthrough at a local school.

Then came Saka’s post-spot-kick redemption, a familiar trend already in a young man’s career. After one dink too close to Courtois, his second was perfect, the ball sailing beyond the Belgian’s reach and the Gunners into a 1-0 — make that 4-0 — lead. Saliba, though, took his eye off both ball and the closing Vinicius for a moment and within two minutes, Madrid had their prey just about back in sight.

But then came the most remarkable passage of the night, the first at which Madrid had theoretical momentum and the first at which Arsenal’s proximity to the line should have put lead in their boots. Except the eye test revealed nothing of the sort.

They were comfortable and that Martinelli had the reserves to run clear from inside his own half to seal victory emphasised just how totally the champions of Europe had been outworked, outplayed and, ultimately, dethroned.

We are ready to compete against anybody. You can feel the team’s hunger, determination, ambition

Mikel Arteta

Sparked by Merino, fists at the sky at the whistle, and conducted by a shirtless Saka, Arsenal’s celebrations on the pitch ran into the night, travelling fans for once bearing few grumbles at being shut in the away end until long after the rest of the ground had cleared.

There have been numerous times this season when those supporters might happily have shaken hands, stomached another second-place finish in the Premier League and pressed fast-forward to August and the start of another tilt.

Certainly in the early spring, when their first-choice forward line and reserve striker were all crocked, this did not feel a campaign still teeming with life.

And yet here they are, now just two games from only a second ever Champions League final, and three from lifting club football’s most famous trophy for the very first time.

Paris showdown

The PSG side that Arsenal held at arms-length in a 2-0 win in north London in October is not the same one that will return in two weeks’ time. Desire Doue, the teenage sensation, was that night making his first Champions League start. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia was still at Napoli. Ousmane Dembele was on four goals for the season. He now has 24 since January 1.

Still, this is also a PSG who have just conceded four across two legs against Villa, and one that, even at 5-1 up threatened to relinquish control of a tie against probably the weakest team among the quarter-finalists. Playing the most established of them, Arsenal never loosened their own hold.

Watching that game in Madrid on Tuesday night, Arsenal fans cheered Villa’s exit, perhaps because a trip to Paris made more appeal than Birmingham, but more likely for avoiding an all-English semi-final.

The Gunners’ record against domestic rivals in Europe is abysmal, with Champions League exits to Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United since the turn of the century, as well as a Europa League final defeat to the Blues.

That came at the end of Unai Emery’s one full season, six years ago and six months exactly before Arteta took charge. Six weeks from now in Munich, something special just might be on the cards.