For so many years, Real Madrid ‘organized‘ a spectacular comebacks and won a lot of games in injury time and in overtimes, not to mention penalty shootout wins. The players became bored with this and they needed a bigger motivation. And Arsenal gave them that motivation by destroying them 3-0 at the Emirates last week. So, both the players and the fans preached ‘remontada‘ (comeback in Spanish) all week, trying to motivate each other. But in reality, all those fans should have looked at the history books and they would see that the last team who scored three goals against Arsenal was Luton Town in December 2023. And tonight, Real managed to play as badly as in London and are not only worse than Luton, but also than PSV, Newcastle and Aston Villa, the last teams to score more than one goal against the Gunners: Real Madrid – Arsenal 1-2.Penalty miss in a euros final Penalty miss in a title race game Penalty miss in a UCL knock out match Who is it? #Arsenal #RMAARS #UCL pic.twitter.com/GOr8JScCki— SportsTech (@SportsTech25) April 16, 2025 There was no ‘remontada‘ this evening, the Madrid hype didn‘t work against the Gunners players who looked like they had a number of games in this environment, and in fact they had none. They played two fantastic games and all those people who though that the Emirates game was a fluke were rudely denied tonight, when they played even better. With so many excellent players which many of whom are better individually then Arsenal ones, Real did nothing and couldn‘t even score from a proper chance, until Saliba made a mistake from which they scored. Arsenal again won at Santiago Bernabeu, just like in 2006. Then it was Thierry Henry and tonight it was Bukayo Saka and Leandro Trossard. They only thing Mikel Arteta should do ahead of the exciting semi-final with PSG is to remove Bukayo Saka as the penalty taker. The youngster is obviously trying to prove to the whole world that his misses in EURO final and in a UCL knock out match were a fluke, but they weren’t. He missed the penalty again in the 10th minute when the score was 0-0 and could have been the worst player, but luckily for him, the home team was terrible.Arsenal’s record vs Real Madrid in the Champions League:✅ 0-1🤝 0-0✅ 3-0✅ 1-2The Gunners remain unbeaten.🤷♂️ pic.twitter.com/qRLumfnK01— Squawka (@Squawka) April 16, 2025 Much drama and excitement and little football, that‘s how we can describe the first half of the match. These minutes were crucial for Real, as an early goal would mean so much for the home team, but instead, Madrid managed only15 touches in the Arsenal box and and had no shots on target. Contrary to all beliefs, the Gunners played really mature, with coolness and tight at the back and didn‘t allow any chances. In their team, only Bukayo Saka had two opportunities inside the first 10 minutes. One shot went just near the bar, while other was saved by Courtois. The only real excitement happened between 10th and 25th minute, when the referee was the main actor. Francois Letexier gave penalty to Arsenal, after VAR‘s suggestion, as Asencio pulled Merino in the penalty area. Martin Odegaard took the ball but Bukayo Saka decided that he should take the penalty only to see Courtois save his shot. A fantastic emotional momentum for the home team and the fans, but they still couldn‘t take advantage of that. Then Letexier gave penalty to Real, but then (again) listened to VAR room, checked the situation and decided that Rice – Mbappe contact was not so strong after all.105 – @vinijr 🇧🇷 has scored his 105th goal for @realmadriden in all competitions, becoming the Brazilian with the most goals in Real Madrid’s history (Ronaldo Nazario, 104). Samba. pic.twitter.com/Em7k3y5Z3K— OptaJose (@OptaJose) April 16, 2025 The situation didn‘t change at all in the second half, as Real looked just as bad as in the first half, and made their first shot on target in the 56th minute! And then in the 65th minute a shock. Saka broke the lines from a Merino pass and timed his run perfectly. This time Courtois couldn‘t do anything and Arsenal took a shocking lead. But just two minutes later, Saliba made an unexpected error and allowed Vinicius to strip him off the ball and score the equalizer. But that was all the home team could do, and to make things worse, the Gunners scored the winner in injury time, when Martinelli used a counter attack to put one past Courtois for the win and a remarkable 5-1 win on aggregate.UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE – QUARTER-FINALSSecond legTuesdayAston Villa – PSG 3-2/Tielemans 34, McGinn 55, Konsa 58 – Hakimi 11, Mendes 28/PSG win 5-4 on aggregateDortmund – Barcelona 3-1/Guirassy 11 pen, 49, 76 – Bensebaini 54 og/Barcelona win 5-3 on aggregateWednesdayInter – Bayern 2-2 /Martinez 58, Pavard 61 – Kane 52, Dier 76/Inter win 4-3 on aggregateReal Madrid – Arsenal 1-2 /Vinicius 67 – Saka 65, Martinelli 90+3/Arsenal Win 5-1 on aggregate
