Arsenal beat Real Madrid again to book Champions League semi-final spot in style

Arsenal secured their first Champions League semi-final in 16 years after a historic 2-1 win against Real Madrid in the Bernabeu.

Bukayo Saka, who missed a first-half penalty, fired Arsenal into a 4-0 aggregate lead after 64 minutes, only for the holders to respond immediately when Vinicius Junior nicked the ball off William Saliba before he fired home.

Vinicius’ goal provided Real Madrid with some hope, but Arsenal held on to their three-goal advantage – following Declan Rice’s superb set-piece double at the Emirates eight days ago – before Gabriel Martinelli scored in stoppage time to make it 5-1 on aggregate and complete a memorable night in Spain for Mikel Arteta’s side.

Arsenal, who became the first English team to win twice at the Bernabeu following their victory here 19 years ago, will play Paris St Germain for a place in the final as they bid to be crowned European champions for the first time.

The buzz word ahead of Wednesday’s second leg was remontada – Spanish for comeback – with Jude Bellingham insisting Real Madrid were confident they could overturn Arsenal’s 3-0 lead.

But the focus of an electric period was on two contentious penalties – one that was awarded to Arsenal, and the other which the hosts were denied.

Prior to the two flashpoints a clearly offside Kylian Mbappe had the ball in the Arsenal net within two minutes and the disallowed goal only encouraged the home fans.

Yet it was Arsenal who had the best opportunities to open the scoring and both chances fell to Saka. On eight minutes, the England winger left David Alba tumbling to the turf before he unleashed a wicked shot on Thibaut Courtois’ goal which required a diving save.

Arsenal were awarded a penalty four minutes later when Raul Asencio was