Arsenal face Atletico Madrid in the first leg of the Champions League semifinal. Today’s match is in Madrid with the return leg in London, a perk the Gunners earned by topping the League Phase. En route to finishing first, Arsenal downed this same Atletico side 4-0 at the Emirates in October. But as we learned last season when the Gunners handled PSG in the fall only to go out of the CL to them in the spring, teams change and the knockout rounds are a different beast.
Diego Simeone’s side have put together a subpar campaign (by their usual standards) in La Liga but have been quite good in the Champions League. Arsenal-linked Julian Alvarez, who recently returned to training and the substitutes bench following a muscle issue, has led the way in Europe with 9 goals and 5 assists in 13 matches. Six foot-five striker Alexander Sorloth has chipped in with 6 goals of his own to go along with 12 league tallies.
Surprisingly and uncharacteristically, it’s been the defense that has let Atletico down. Simeone’s club have cultivated a reputation over the Argentinian’s time in charge of being combative, well-organized, and stingy. This season, they’re conceding nearly 2 goals per game in the CL and slightly more than a goal per game in La Liga.
They’ve had enough scoring pop to get the job done so far, although I’d suggest that Arsenal’s defense might prove a sterner test than those of Club Brugge, Tottenham, and Barcelona.
The Gunners’ defending hasn’t taken much of a hit with Riccardo Calafiori and Jurrien Timber out of the lineup for several weeks, but their absences have been felt on the attacking side of things. Piero Hincapie and Cristhian Mosquera (or Ben White) don’t offer as much dynamism as the two starters. The Italian returned to training this week and might feature. Timber has yet to train.
Ebere Eze, who was subbed off against Newcastle after needing treatment, is back in training and should be available. It seems as if he’s being managed through something and his withdrawal over the weekend was precautionary. Kai Havertz picked up a groin injury against Newcastle and has not trained this week. He’s likely to miss out against Fulham this weekend but might be back for the second leg next week. According to Mikel Arteta, the German’s injury is not as serious as it might have appeared from his body language and facial expression coming off the pitch. Mikel Merino is “pushing hard” to make it back before the end of the season from a broken bone in his foot.
Atletico lost a planned starter to injury yesterday — Nico Gonzalez was reportedly set to get the starting nod ahead of Giuliano Simeone at right wing. The injury means that Giuliano, who has generally been preferred to Gonzalez anyway, should start. The Spanish side are also without centerback Jose Maria Gimenez. The Uruguayan has missed several matches with a muscle injury but reports are that he could return for the second leg. Young midfielder Pablo Barrios is expected to miss a month with a hamstring problem. David Hancko and January signing Ademola Lookman returned to training this week and are expected to be available, likely as starters.
WHO: Arsenal vs Atletico MadridWHAT: Champions League SF first legWHERE: The Metropolitano Stadium, MadridWHEN: Wednesday, April 29th, 12:00 pm PT | 3:00 pm ET | 8:00 pm GMTHOW TO WATCH: Streaming on Paramount+ app
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