Arsenal arrive at the Metropolitano unbeaten in the Champions League and 90 minutes from a first final
Arsenal head to the Estadio Metropolitano on Wednesday night for the first leg of a Champions League semi-final, and the most striking line in the build-up has nothing to do with any individual player. Mikel Arteta's side are the only team left in the competition without a defeat. They went through the league phase with a perfect record of eight wins from eight, and they have added two more victories and two draws in the knockouts since.
It is the kind of run that should breed confidence. It also brings the kind of expectation that English clubs often find heavier to carry than the football itself.
Atletico's first semi-final since 2017
For Diego Simeone's side, this is a return to a stage they were once a fixture on. It is Atletico's seventh Champions League semi-final, and their first since the 2016-17 campaign. They got here by edging Barcelona 3-2 on aggregate in the quarter-finals, hanging on at the Metropolitano in the second leg after a 2-0 lead from the first. Ademola Lookman's first-time finish in the 31st minute proved the decisive goal on the night Barcelona looked the more likely.
The version of Atletico that has reached this round looks a little different to the one that became famous for grinding teams down. They have scored 34 goals in this season's Champions League, more than any Atletico side in the competition's history, and Simeone has trusted his front line to do damage rather than just hold a line.
A meeting that comes with recent history
The two clubs have crossed paths once this season already. Arsenal won 4-0 at the Emirates in the league phase, a result that helped Arteta's side finish top of the new format table. The Gunners' last meaningful European tie with Atletico before that was the 2017-18 Europa League semi-final, which Atletico took 2-1 on aggregate before going on to lift the trophy. Arsenal have not forgotten it.
What is at stake on Wednesday
Neither club has ever won the Champions League. Atletico have lost two finals, both to Real Madrid. Arsenal have one runners-up trophy, the 2006 final in Paris. The winner of this tie joins either PSG or Bayern Munich in the final at the Puskas Arena in Budapest on May 30. PSG took a 5-4 lead from the first leg of that semi-final at the Parc des Princes on Tuesday night.
For Arsenal there is also a domestic complication. They sit at the top of the Premier League, three points clear of Manchester City after Eberechi Eze's ninth-minute strike beat Newcastle at the weekend, and the squad they bring to Madrid has spent the season managing two title fights at once. Arteta has said all year that the only honest way to play it is to take both seriously. The Metropolitano is where the harder of the two starts.
Kick off at the Metropolitano is 9:00 pm local time, 8:00 pm in the UK.
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