Who could predict that Arsenal were going to put one of, if not the, biggest football teams in the world to the sword, not once, but twice? I didn’t.
It was hard to imagine that Arsenal were going to be able to produce a performance that would be better than last week’s first leg of this Champions League quarter-final. But they did.
The Gunners had a clear remit to not get dragged into the emotion created by the Bernabeu crowd. And they didn’t.
Yes, Arsenal held off Real Madrid last night to reach the Champions League semi-finals in an incident-packed match at the Bernabeu.
At kick-off Arsenal had a 3-0 aggregate lead to defend after their superb victory in the first leg last week - and they were given the chance to silence the noisy home support when they were awarded a 13th-minute penalty.
But Saka’s uncharacteristic poor choice from the spot allowed Courtois to save his chip with ease
However, the England forward made amends for his miss when he effectively killed off the tie with a fantastic chipped second-half finish over Courtois after Mikel Merino's clever pass.
Real hit back just two minutes later when a terrible mistake from William Saliba gifted Vinicius Junior with an open goal to score.
But Real were not able to capitalise on that glimmer of hope and Gabriel Martinelli capped off a glorious night by making it 2-1 in stoppage time with a breakaway goal, again set up by Merino.
The crowd went wild. And we celebrated long into the night.
It is just the third time Arsenal have reached the semi-final stage of the Champions League and they will face Paris St-Germain in the last four. Home on 29th April and away on 7th May.
Onwards and upwards, my friends.
@Arsenal
@overyourhead
@regenersaurus
#COYG #RMAARS
#awaydays
@gaygooners
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