England's Arsenal has become the first to qualify for the Champions League final after its victory on Tuesday evening over Spain's Atletico Madrid, 1-0, in the second leg of the semi-final. The “Gunners” set a date in the final in Budapest with the winner of Wednesday’s confrontation between Bayern Munich of Germany and Paris Saint-Germain of France, the defending champion (4-5 first leg).
Published on: 05/05/2026 - 22:54 Last updated: 06/05/2026 - 09:01
English Arsenal reached the Champions League final after defeating Spanish Atletico Madrid on Tuesday evening at the Emirates Stadium in London.
The only goal of the match was scored by Bukayo Saka in the 45th minute of the first half. The Gunners benefited from a valuable 1-1 draw at Atletico Stadium last Wednesday.
Arsenal, the leader of the Premier League three stages before the end, maintained its chances of achieving an unprecedented double, after reaching the final of the most glorious European Cups for the second time after 2006, when it lost to Barcelona, Spain, 1-2.
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The Gunners reached the Champions League final without any loss, as they qualified for the knockout rounds after topping the unified group stage, where they won all eight matches. Then they tied with Bayer Leverkusen of Germany 1-1 and won them 2-0 in the eighth-final, and in the quarter-finals they beat Sporting of Portugal 1-0 and tied with them 0-0.
Read also: Return to live coverage of the Arsenal and Atletico Madrid match
On the other hand, Atletico came out with a zero season, after losing the final of the local cup competition also in April to Real Sociedad.
Arteta made offensive changes for the first leg, starting with Saka and Belgian Leandro Trossard instead of Brazilian Gabriel Martinelli and Noni Maduike, and also gave a key participation to full-back Miles Lewis-Skelly in the midfield and Eberechi Eze in the role of advanced playmaker.
As expected, Argentine coach Diego Simeone returned his stars to the starting lineup, after he made many changes in the victory over Valencia on Saturday in the league, where he rested his main players before the decisive trip to North London.
The situation at the Emirates Stadium was no different than it was during the first half in the Metropolitano. A transfer of balls without any offensive effectiveness for both teams, amidst more attempts by the hosts. No shot resulted in a single shot on the goal of giant Slovenian goalkeeper Jan Oblak throughout the 44 minutes, in which the first shot on goal came from Trossar. Oblak blocked it, but it fell to Saka, who put it into the goal (44).
Atletico is helpless offensively
In the second half, Atletico pressed in search of an equaliser, and it came close through Argentine Giuliano Simeone, who faced Spanish goalkeeper David Raya, but was harassed by Brazilian centre-back Gabriel, who sent his ball away to a corner (51).
The Frenchman tried Antoine Griezmann with a shot from inside the area, which Raya blocked (56), while Yukiris wasted the opportunity to score the second with a powerful shot that went over the goal after Ecuadorian Piero Hincapier's cross (66).
Despite all the substitutions by the two teams in the second half, the situation did not change offensively between the two teams that were expected to adopt a defensive style, as they did in the first leg as well, in contrast to the first exciting confrontation between Saint-Germain and Bayern, which ended 5-4.
With AFP
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