Arsenal without shining. A week after having had all the difficulty in the world to make the difference in Lisbon, Arsenal qualified for the semi-finals of the Champions League for the second consecutive season. At the end of a closed match and with many inaccuracies and little success against goal (only two shots on target in total), the Gunners join Atlético de Madrid in the last four.
We’re really bored
We expected a lot from Mikel Arteta’s men, although victims of a lot of decline in recent weeks, it was nothing of the sort. Like Viktor Gyökeres who was very discreet against his former club, the Londoners had a lot of trouble being dangerous. The latter were rather distinguished by errors on the restart, like William Saliba or David Raya, feverish from their camp. The first attempts by Francisco Trincão and Gyökeres are far from the target. At the break, the best chance of the match was even credited to the visitors, with a shot on the post from Geny Catamo. It’s not a football party at the Emirates.
As soon as we return from the locker room, we feel that the two teams want to pack a punch into the match, but imprecision still reigns. Strikes from Maximiliano Araújo and Gabriel Martinelli missed the mark, when Gyökeres was shown the way to the bench. Arteta tries to bring a little madness to this meeting with offensive changes, but above all he sees Raya miss another restart and Cristhian Moquera comes close to conceding a penalty. The last 20 minutes are no different from the first 70, we have a series of inaccuracies, half-situations, half-heats and few shots, and here Arsenal are heading into the half after a last off-target strike from João Simões. For Sporting, the beautiful story ends with honors. It was ugly, but that’s OK for Arsenal.
Who is ready for this double confrontation from hell between Arsenal and Atlético?
Arsenal (4-2-3-1) : Raya – Mosquera, Saliba, Gabriel, Hincapié – Zubimendi, Rice – Madueke (Dowman, 63e), Eze (Jesus, 79e), Martinelli (Trossard, 79e) – Rooted (Havertz, 56e). Coach : M. Arteta
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