Atlético Madrid are favorites
Arsenal and Lacazette were first to get on the scoreboard but Atletico and Griezmann. The two French national team forwards were decisive for their respective team. This is a huge result for Atlético after playing most of the game down to 10 men [red card after only 10 minutes].
Arsenal can regret the draw as they will now need to get the result in Madrid next week, a very difficult place to win. It was a shockingly bad defending that awards Griezmann and Atlético a goal that changes everything.
Koscielny completed missed on the goal and Mustafi slipped so the Frenchman could easily adjust his shot to score the equalizer. Again it was shocking to see this.
Coach Wenger on the draw and the team’s chances:
“It’s frustrating. We had not to force it. We were 1-0 up and the second goal could have come even in the last five minutes. You have to stay 1-0 up and after that, everything is open.
They are a team who defend well, we know that. They have one of the best defensive records in Europe, you could see tonight that’s no coincidence. But we had the chances. Once they were down to 10 men, it destroyed a bit the flow of the game and it was not to our advantage.
The only advantage of that result is we know exactly what we have to do over there. We have nothing to lose. We have to go there and really play to win the game. I must say our fans were fantastic. That’s what you want. Overall, yes we created the anti-climax by giving the goal away.
I was focused on doing absolutely everything to win the game. Before the game I was like everybody. We knew that out of the four teams left, we played the favourite. I was more focused on making sure we won the game tonight.
We started well, with good pace, good collective drive. The whole thing went wrong in the end but I had not much time to get a rest.”
