It was perhaps Arsenal’s greatest win in European competition, topping even the Arsene Wenger-masterminded 5-1 destruction of Inter Milan in November 2003. On that occasion, Arsenal scored four unanswered second-half goals. On Tuesday night, it was a home game, and they scored three, but crucially, they came against Real Madrid, the side that set the standards for club football.
Real are the defending champions and have won the Champions League six times in the last 11 seasons. But after a performance that Jude Bellingham, their star midfielder, said was ‘nowhere near it’, they have a mountain to climb in the return leg in Madrid next week.
“We’ve got 90 minutes of football and anything can happen at the Bernabeu.” – Jude Bellingham
According to Opta, football’s premier number-crunchers, Arsenal now have a 96 per cent chance of progressing to the last four. Carlo Ancelotti, the Real coach who has lifted the trophy an unprecedented five times – twice with AC Milan – wasn’t about to give up though. “We must believe and try to make something magic happen in the second leg,” he said. “In football, everything can happen. For example, Declan Rice who scores two free kicks as he never did in his career.”
Real have never overturned a 3-0 deficit in the knockout rounds of European competitions, but Bellingham too was cautiously optimistic, especially with the attacking firepower at Real’s disposal. “One place where crazy things happen is our house,” he told Amazon Prime. “We need something really special, something crazy really. We’ve got 90 minutes of football and anything can happen at the Bernabeu.”
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