Atlético will believe in UCL final chances after unlucky Arsenal draw
· Yahoo Sports
Atlético Madrid played out a 1-1 draw in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League semi-final tie with Arsenal that many have branded as “controversial.”
🏴❌ Jamie Carragher: "Atleti's penalty for Ben White's handball? It’s winding me up! The thought of a Champions League final being decided on that. It’s not right, it’s not fair, it’s a stain on the Champions League."
[via @CBSSportsGolazo] pic.twitter.com/4pCsrM4PUCVisit extonnews.click for more information.
— Atletico Universe (@atletiuniverse) April 30, 2026
The Gunners took the lead from the spot in the first half before Atleti scored a penalty of their own after the break. Arsenal’s second penalty of the game was overturned after referee Danny Makkelie changed his decision to award a foul on Eberechi Eze by Dávid Hancko.
VAR aside and it was Atlético who had more, and better, chances but were unable to convert anything from open play.
Here are Into the Calderón’s key takeaways from this attritional first battle of the Simeone-Arteta war.
Better than PSG?
The best coaches in any sport will always say that stats must be double-clicked to provide the correct context behind it. For example, a goalkeeper who has “only saved one penalty in their career” might not sound as bad when you learn that they’ve only faced two. Or a striker who has scored 10 goals in the cup might not sound as impressive when you discover he scored the bulk against non-league opposition in the opening rounds.
That being said, the statistics that underlie this match paint Atlético Madrid in a light brighter than that of PSG in their semi-final first leg against Bayern Munich.
Atleti had 18 shots on Wednesday, compared with the 12 from the Parisians in their 5-4 win over Bayern Munich on Tuesday. “OK, but what about shots on target?” I hear you ask. A fair question, considering that would be the first layer of context to deduce more information.
Well that was five for PSG and four for Atleti, so fair enough. But Antoine Griezmann’s effort off the bar doesn’t classify as a shot on target, remember.
In that case perhaps we could use the xG (expected goals) metric to conclude on the quality of the chances that were accumulated instead. That would be 1.51 to 2.21 in favour of Los Rojiblancos.
Not forgetting to double-click, if we were to work out the average xG per shot taken, then PSG would edge that one out by 0.03. I’m sure you’d agree that’s a minimal difference.
Lastly, we can look at the slightly irrelevant and completely circumstantial stats that are often used to pad out a lot of these analyses. Atleti had four more corners and nine percent more possession than PSG did in the first leg of the other semifinal.
At this point, most will likely be wondering why the comparison is with PSG and not with Arsenal, the team Atlético actually played against? Because Atleti dominated in all of those stats against Arsenal, and PSG were the victors in what many are claiming to be “the greatest Champions League semi-final in history.”
I guess I’m trying to deliver some hope to the situation, and that going to the Emirates Stadium shouldn’t be viewed upon in such a frightful manner as Atleti deserve to be taking a lead to north London.
The reason they’re not? Because of the most important stat of them all: PSG put five goals past a very good Bayern (perhaps not defensively), and Atleti only managed one against an average Arsenal (albeit with Europe’s best defence).
The mistake before the foul
To give an insight so basic and cliché, that it was most probably said pre-match on TNT Sports UK by Martin Keown or Steve McManaman: moments decide matches.
Unfortunately for Atleti, the moment of the match came right at the end of the first half, when Viktor Gyökeres put Arsenal ahead from the penalty spot. Except that wasn’t exactly the moment and neither was the foul.
Whether or not you think that was enough to be given as a penalty, the risk is very much run as soon as Hancko allows Gyökeres to slip into the space between him and the goal. Yes, the Swedish striker was being watched by Marc Pubill, but he wouldn’t have made that move into the space if Hancko was goal-side as well.
Diego Simeone said post-match that for a penalty to be given in a Champions League semi-final, it has to be clear. While there is no doubt in that, what also has to be airtight is the positioning of your center-back in the most important match of their life.
To defend the Slovakian for a moment, his position was compromised by a wayward Julián Alvarez header that failed to find a teammate in such a crucial part of the pitch. That dragged him out to commit to closing down Martin Ødegaard, which left the hole in behind him vulnerable to a Swedish fox in the box.
The good news is that this over-committing wasn’t punished in the second half, when Eze decided to take a leaf out of Vinicíus Júnior’s book in an attempt to win a penalty.
Look, man!
He’s already been so decisive since arriving in January from Atalanta, but Ademola Lookman had the chance to write his name in another page of Atlético de Madrid history in the second half.
In fact, he had two chances.
The first, a little after 52 minutes, was begging to be hit hard, low and across the goalkeeper after Alvarez played him through. Lookman got the shot all wrong and managed to ping it right at David Raya, at a comfortable height. Luckily for the Nigerian, the resulting corner led to the penalty which la araña dispatched.
However, the next occasion, in the 74th minute, was even clearer cut. A typically-swift move had Marcos Llorente feed a great ball between the Arsenal defenders to find Lookman who was being guarded by Ben White. The winger did incredibly well to get the better of the English right-back, and had the goal at his mercy. This time, the shot was low, relatively hard, but again straight down the barrel of the Raya-shaped gun.
Lookmman be rueing those opportunities over the course of the next few days, and will be working hard to make sure that should anything similar fall his way next week, he buries them a-la-Alexander Sørloth. Just welly it, man!