Real Madrid sore loser insists Arsenal ‘did almost nothing’ as Gunners star slammed for utter ‘madness’
A bitter Real Madrid star claims Arsenal “did almost nothing” in the first half at the Bernabeu while one Gunners star is slammed over his utter “madness”.
The Gunners took a 3-0 lead to the Bernabeu and left with a 5-1 aggregate win after goals from Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli secured victory in both games.
Saka had missed a penalty in the first half as his awful panenka was saved by Thibaut Courtois, before Real Madrid saw a spot-kick overturned following a five-minute VAR check.
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But Saka made up for his error just after the hour mark, dinking Mikel Merino’s through ball over Courtois, before Vinicius Junior pounced on a William Saliba error to give the hosts false hope.
Mikel Arteta’s side looked comfortable throughout and Martinelli put gloss on the performance by winning the game in injury time as he dashed in behind the Real Madrid from the halfway line before slotting the ball past Courtois.
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And Madrid skipper Lucas Vazquez sounded like a bit of a sore loser after the game.
He said: “It’s a difficult moment. I think we tried today. It was a complicated match. We didn’t have all the chances we would have liked.”
“We didn’t lose sight of the goal. There were interruptions [but] it didn’t happen. Maybe we lacked more clarity. More patience.
“They came to defend, to play their role. In the first half, they did almost nothing. In the second, with the team pressing, they found the victory.”
Vazquez added: “Thank you for the atmosphere you created. Real Madrid will always return. Not everything is lost. There is a lot of season left. The team is united and eager to achieve what’s left.”
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One blot on Arsenal’s copybook came late in the game as Thomas Partey was shown a yellow card for getting into an altercation with Jude Bellingham after Antonio Rudiger’s cynical foul on Mikel Merino.
It means the midfielder will miss the first leg of the semi-final against Paris Saint-Germain, giving Mikel Arteta a selection dilemma ahead of that game, with alternative midfielder Jorginho out for the season.
“Madness,” Ally McCoist said on TNT Sports in the immediate aftermath of Patey’s lack of discipline.
‘Declan is saying, what are you doing, why get involved. We’re through, there’s 5 mins to go. He’s played every so well, what a blemish for him.”
Former Arsenal winger Theo Walcott fears Partey will be a big miss and is concerned that the only option to Arteta appears to be Mikel Merino who has been brilliant as the makeshift striker.
“Arsenal and Paris St-Germain are definitely the two best teams in this season’s Champions League, and the semi-final is going to be a completely different story to when Mikel Arteta’s side beat them 2-0 at the Emirates in October,” Walcott told the BBC.
“PSG hadn’t really clicked then, but they have now. Arsenal will be ready for them, but I think they might miss Thomas Party, who is suspended after his yellow card tonight.
“He was so important at the Bernabeu, not just with the way he was getting back into the back-line and to help out with the amount of crosses he was dealing with tonight.
“Partey was also helping Arsenal to slow the ball down and to control the midfield. The PSG game is all going to be about the midfield for me and Declan Rice is now probably going to play a game with someone who he is less familiar with.
“Mikel Merino can drop in there, but that might affect the forward line more because of where he has been playing recently.
“This is what Mikel Arteta will be thinking about now, and he might tinker with a few things against Ipswich and Crystal Palace, to try things out before the semi-final.”