Arsenal grind out a nervous 0-0 against Sporting to book a Champions League semi-final with Atletico
Arsenal are in the Champions League semi-finals again. They did not have to play well to get there on Wednesday night. A goalless draw at the Emirates was enough to finish the job Kai Havertz started in Lisbon, with his 91st-minute winner last week proving the only goal of a very cagey 180 minutes of football against Sporting.
Mikel Arteta's side go through 1-0 on aggregate. It is the joint-lowest aggregate in a Champions League quarter-final since Manchester City got past Atletico Madrid the same way in 2021-22. It is also, according to the club, the first time in Arsenal's 140-year history that they have reached back-to-back Champions League semi-finals.
A nervous night at the Emirates
This was not the Arsenal of their recent league form. The crowd sensed it early, Sporting sensed it earlier still, and for long stretches it was the visitors who looked the more dangerous side. Geny Catamo clipped the post just before half time, which would have changed the tone of the tie entirely.
Arsenal had their moments. Leandro Trossard headed against the post in the 84th from Declan Rice’s corner. Viktor Gyokeres, coming back to Lisbon as a former Sporting favourite, had a couple of sniffs at goal but could not put either away. It was that kind of night. Chances came, none of them went in, and the Emirates spent the final 10 minutes watching through its fingers.
Arteta was honest afterwards
The post-match mood was not celebratory. Arteta talked about moments in the first half where his side should have scored, about the need to have more control with the ball, about having to finish more of the actions they started. None of which is what you say when the performance has gone to plan.
Sporting manager Rui Borges will leave London with the feeling that his players did themselves proud, and on another night might have gone through. The clear chances were theirs. The aggregate scoreline, thanks to Havertz, was Arsenal's.
Atletico next
The reward for getting through is Atletico Madrid, who knocked Barcelona out the night before. Diego Simeone's side will be a very different kind of problem from Sporting. Tighter, more physical, and with a clear plan to drag ties into the kind of territory Arsenal did not handle brilliantly tonight.
The first leg is away at the Metropolitano on April 29. Arsenal will need their injury list to shorten and their rhythm to come back before then. What they have in their favour is that they are still in the competition. On nights like Wednesday, that is all that matters.
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