Arsenal blew a perfect opportunity to take control of our Europa League semi-final after somehow drawing 1-1 with 10-man Atletico Madrid at the Emirates tonight.
It was a frantic start as Atletico found themselves down to 10-men inside the opening ten minutes with Sime Vrsaljko sent off for two bookable offences while boss Diego Simeone was also sent to the stands.
Arsenal dominated the first half but couldn’t make their advantage count as we wasted a number of great chances to break the deadlock and it was 0-0 at half time.
We continued to push after the break and finally opened the scoring in the 60th minute as Alexandre Lacazette found the back of the net with a fine header from a Jack Wilshere cross.
Arsenal were well on top but lacked the ruthlessness in the final third to find a second goal that would really put us in control of the semi-final and unfortunately we were made to pay.
A long ball over the top wasn’t dealt with by Laurent Koscielny as his attempted clearance fell to Antoine Griezmann and the striker scored at the second attempt after Shkodran Mustafi slipped at the crucial moment.
It was shocking defending all-round and Madrid escaped with a barely deserved point but Arsenal will rue their lack of ruthlessness which should have seen us out of sight heading in to the second leg.
Watch the goals here:
