Doug McIntyre
Soccer journalist
UEFA Champions League semifinals are established.
The Arsenal completed the discomfort of the Real Madrid defender champion on Wednesday, while Inter Milan held Bayern Munich in the other quarter -final match. Both the Gunners and the Inter entered the decisive match of their respective Total-Goals-Wins series with leadership.
The Arsenal will now face Paris-Saint Germain for a place in the European final next month, while the Italians face Barcelona. The semifinals begin on April 29.
Here are three quick conclusions of Wednesday’s games.
This time, luck was on the side of Real Madrid
When the Real Madrid goalkeeper, Thibaut Courtois, hit Bukayo Saka’s penalty tattemp in the first half of the contest on Wednesday to prevent the arsenal from going to take a 4-0 added advantage, it was easy to guess what it was easy to guess what it was easy to guess what was easy to guess what was a mess. With their strident fans within Santiago Bernabéu stadium that stimulate them, Real Madrid would use the impulse generated by the timely stop of Courtois to erase the deficit and achieve another miracle in the elimination stage of the Champions League.
For once, the seemingly inevitable return never happened. The Arsenal not only administered its advantage still released for the rest of the way, the Mikel Arteta team even received the assistance of referee Francois Letexier. The French official, who had given the Spotkick against the hosts previously, refused to grant his own real penalty for a similar infraction at the other end, just after the video assistant referee recommended a review. Despite a five -minute delay, Letexier was not inflamed by repetition. Suddenly, Real Madrid, which could extract within two goals, given the opportunity to become 12 yards, felt so far from the Final Four as always.
Indeed, no late magic reached the rescue of trophy holders. Not this year. Not this time. Timely, it was Saka who twisted the knife with an exhausting room for the gunners to compensate for their previous failure. Blank loose He threw one before he finished. But the result was decided long before Gabriel Martinelli did 5-1 in an aggregate in the stop time. Real Madrid is out, and Europe will crown this spring.
The gunners return to the semifinals in style
When Arsenal fans who made the trip from London to the capital of Spain for the decisive quarterfinals on Wednesday against the most fearsome opponent that their gunners could have drawn, they must have a trip home.
On the other hand, these Gooners (as Arsenal Diehards is known) witnessed the story, since Mikel Arteta’s side basically went through the record of 15 times European headlines to reach the four for the first time since Arsène Wenger was on the sidelines in 2009.
What can they do for a bis? The PSG will present a formidable challenge. But Saka & Co. must also believe that they can defeat any enemy after killing the greatest giant of all. Given the totally convincing way they achieved it, there is no reason to believe they can’t.
Inter Milan Staves outside the furious return of Bayern
High -level soccer games are often like a boxing fight, with all flows and flows as the impulse swings to the two combatants as the exchange explodes.
So it was for Inter and Bayern through both legs of their fight, which ended with interferee 4-3 together after a 2-2 draw in San Siro in Milan.
For Bayern, not winning any game is unacceptable. The Germans should not hit too much. For every time the Inter got a punch in the 180 minutes, Bayern responded with one of the own objectives, exchanging almost all the way until Benjamin Savard del Inter resolved with the winner of another series. Breaded but not yet beaten, Bayern still hung up to the final beep, going back inside a goal through Eric Dier with approximately a quarter of an hour still to play.
However, Inter is advancing, with only Barcelona, it was among the leaders of Serie A and a second final appearance of the Champions League in the last three seasons.
Doug McIntyre is Fox Sports football reporter who has covered USA National teams for men and women in the world cups of FIFA on five continents. Follow it @Bydougmcintyre.
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