Friday 27 April 2018 11:57, UK
Arsenal wasted a huge opportunity to beat 10-man Atletico Madrid as Antoine Griezmann's late goal earned the Spanish side a 1-1 draw in their Europa League semi-final first leg at the Emirates Stadium on Thursday. It could cost Arsene Wenger his perfect goodbye.
"Is there a perfect goodbye? I don't know." Arsene Wenger had asked the question beforehand but he did not get the answer he was hoping for in his final home European game as Arsenal manager. After dominating 10-man Atletico Madrid, a late equaliser gives the Gunners plenty to do in the Spanish capital if Wenger's reign is to end in glory.
For much of the match, the fairy-tale ending looked on. Arsenal did plenty right. Even before they had a one-man advantage, they played with real purpose and looked the better side. Alexandre Lacazette hit the post before forcing a fine save from Jan Oblak. Mesut Ozil was opening things up and Danny Welbeck causing problems out wide. The fluidity was there.
So when Atletico full-back Sime Vrsaljko became the first man to be booked twice inside the first 10 minutes of a Europa League tie, Arsenal continued to lay siege to the opposition goal. They finished with 28 shots and would have walked away with much more to show for it than Lacazette's goal had Oblak not been in brilliant form in the Atleti net.
The twist in the tale came through Antoine Griezmann inside the final 10 minutes and it is tempting to conclude that this was typical Arsenal. Certainly, as Wenger noted, everybody has seen this story before. But typical Arsenal would make it sound a little too much like fate dealt them this hand. It would be wrong to suggest they had no agency. It was preventable.
Wenger called it a goal from "nowhere" but Arsenal were the architects. From Welbeck going to the ground too easily to Nacho Monreal's laziness in getting back in line with his fellow defenders. From Laurent Koscielny being beaten too easily to Shkodran Mustafi being too slow to cover before compounding the error by slipping at the crucial moment.
Even Wenger's patience with his players was tested. "It leaves a bitter taste tonight," he admitted in his post-match press conference. "The result is not in line with the performance … We had chances to be in the final … We should have not been caught on long ball … 1-0 is the perfect result at home … We are now in a difficult position."
He knew that it was more important to deny Atletico their away goal than to double the lead and with the visitors committing so few men forwards, it was only an Arsenal error that was going to allow them to equalise. It was poor game-management with the sin only made more obvious given that they were up against the masters of knockout football.
Prior to this season, Arsenal's last knockout victory in Europe came in a last-16 tie against Porto in 2010. Diego Simeone's Atletico have been in five European semi-finals since then, winning four of them. They are battle-hardened rather than brittle. This is an organised and resilient team that appears to relish the challenge when the odds are against them.
There was never a suggestion that they might cave in. Remarkably, in the 19 La Liga or European games that Atletico have gone down to 10 men in the past five seasons, they have subsequently gone on to concede only eight goals in those situations at a rate of one every 56 minutes. They dig in. They hold on. Sometimes they get their rewards.
It will take something special to stop Simeone's side now. Atletico have conceded only four goals at home in La Liga this season and none at the new stadium in any competition for over three months. A stalemate will be enough to take them to yet another European final but with a full quota of players they will fancy their chances of finding the net themselves.
For Arsenal, it feels like a chance missed. The chance for Lacazette to return to Lyon for the final. The chance for the next manager to kick off his reign with a European Super Cup to contest and a Champions League campaign to plot. But most of all, the chance for Wenger to bow out with the European trophy that has eluded him for his entire career.
His first decade at Arsenal deserves such a prize. It would be a fitting finale. But more cynical souls might find the alternative ending a more accurate reflection of his second decade at the helm. An Arsenal that flattered to deceive. An Arsenal undermined by defensive fragility and the absence of that Atletico steeliness. The perfect goodbye looks a long shot now.
