Huge match against Arsenal in the semi-final first leg
This Wednesday, at 21:00 CEST, we welcome the English side to Madrid for the first leg of our UEFA Champions League semi-final.
After nine seasons, we’ve made it back to the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League. We’ve been drawn against Arsenal, who we will face in the first leg at the Riyadh Air Metropolitano this Wednesday, with the second leg being played the following week at the Emirates Stadium.
To book our ticket to the semi-finals, we eliminated Club Brugge KV, Tottenham Hotspur and FC Barcelona. The London side defeated Bayer Leverkusen and Sporting CP to reach the semi-finals, playing one tie less after finishing first in the league phase.
We come into this crucial match after defeating Athletic Club 3-2, on Saturday, thanks to a goal from Griezmann and a brace from Sørloth. The English side also played at the weekend, as they defeated Newcastle, thanks to a goal from Eze. With this win, Mikel Arteta’s side now lead the Premier League with 73 points, but have played one more game than Manchester City.
We have faced Arsenal on three official occasions prior to this meeting. In the semi-finals of the 2017/18 edition of the Europa League, we managed to eliminate the English side with a 2-1 win on aggregate. Griezmann scored in the first leg at the Emirates Stadium, while Diego Costa scored the goal to decide the tie, booking our spot in the final against Olympique de Marseille. The most recent meeting came in the league phase of the Champions League, a match that we lost at the end of October in our visit to the Emirates Stadium.
