Arsenal Survive Tense Sporting Stalemate To Reach Champions League Semis

Arsenal reached the Champions League semi-finals after riding their luck in a nervous goalless draw against Sporting Lisbon that clinched a 1-0 aggregate victory on Wednesday.

Mikel Arteta’s team were well below their best in the quarter-final second leg at the Emirates Stadium.
But they held onto their slender first-leg advantage as Sporting failed to make them pay for the latest in a growing list of angst-ridden performances.

The Gunners will face Atletico Madrid for a place in the final after the Spanish club went through 3-2 on aggregate against Barcelona on Tuesday.

Arsenal crushed Atletico 4-0 in the group stage at the Emirates in October, but they will have to improve significantly to reach the final for the first time since 2006.

Arsenal have reached the Champions semi-finals in two consecutive seasons for the first time in their history.

Yet after losing three of their last five games in all competitions and winning just once, they remain a puzzling side in the midst an untimely stumble.

Arteta had challenged Arsenal to play with “pure fire” and “zero fear” in an unusually passionate press conference on Tuesday.

The response was hardly emphatic as Arsenal quickly retreated into their shell in another display lacking cohesion and quality in the final third.

Arsenal haven’t lifted the Premier League since 2004 and have never won the Champions League.

The Premier League leaders are on course to achieve both targets, but the flaws in Arteta’s side have become increasingly clear in recent weeks.

Losing the League Cup final against Manchester City and the FA Cup quarter-final against second-tier Southampton was bad enough.

But a shock 2-1 home defeat against Bournemouth in the Premier League on Saturday left Arteta facing pointed questions about Arsenal’s character that remain unanswered.

Arsenal are just six points ahead of second-placed City, who have a game in hand and host the Gunners in a seismic showdown on Sunday.

The north Londoners have finished Premier League runners-up for the past three seasons — twice blowing substantial leads to City in 2023 and 2024 — and the nerves are mounting.