It’s back-to-back Champions League semifinals for Arsenal.
A 0-0 draw with Sporting Lisbon at the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday saw Arsenal advance 1-0 on aggregate to set up a clash with Atletico Madrid in the last four of European club soccer’s top competition.
It means a Premier League and Champions League double remains possible for Mikel Arteta’s team, despite a slump in form in recent weeks.
Arsenal has never won the European Cup and only once
reached the final. But it is now just two games away from this year’s showpiece in Budapest, Hungary.
Kai Havertz's late winner in the first leg of the quarterfinals in Portugal last week proved to be decisive as Sporting failed to find a breakthrough in London.
It is the fourth time Arsenal has advanced to the semifinals, having lost to eventual winner Paris Saint-Germain at that stage last season.
The result was the perfect way for Arsenal to start a crucial week in which it also plays Premier League title rival Manchester City on Sunday.
There have been signs of the tension getting to Arteta's players as the season enters the closing stages, having lost the English League Cup final against City and then crashing out of the FA Cup at the hands of second-division Southampton.
Defeat at home in the league against Bournemouth last weekend only added to the sense that Arsenal was faltering at a critical time.
But Arteta insisted there was “zero fear” ahead of the second leg against Lisbon and his team got the job done in another tight encounter between the two.
Substitute Leandro Trossard came closest to winning it for Arsenal on the night when heading against the post late on.
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James Robson is at https://x.com/jamesalanrobson
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
