Arsenal v Atletico, Getty Images October 21, 2025, 11:58 p.m

London Arsenal recently achieved a small interim goal in the English Premier League and led the championship race, and this time Mikel Arteta’s team had to return to the big confrontations in the UEFA Champions League, where the Gunners had previously met with “middle-class” opponents. Or at least Basque Athletic (2:0) and Greek Olympiakos (2:0) had clearly less experience playing in this competition in recent years than Atletico Madrid, who visited the Emirates.

Meanwhile, Diego Simeone’s team had serious troubles both in the domestic and international arenas, although when you have the top 2 teams of the preliminary draw of the Premier League in the main round of the most prestigious club competition of the Old World from English representatives, even with away matches, then you don’t have to count on points in particular.

And this time, the “mattress players” also had a rather difficult exam at the Emirates. From the first attack, Atlético had every chance to concede, as Eze’s long-range shot ricocheted off Ganzko’s leg and met the crossbar, the rebound from which Rice headed into the stands from close range. The home team’s attacks did not stop there, and it quickly became clear that Ganzko could not stand the competition on the wing with Sako and the rest of the Arsenal players who appeared in that zone.

However, Arteta’s side were in no rush to score, and eventually came close to scoring midway through the first half, when Raya decided to display a miracle of dribbling outside the box on the left flank, and when he rushed to put out the fire of his own making, he almost had a shot from Alvarez into an empty net. However, the Argentine missed from a long distance. And as soon as the second half began, Alvarez had another chance to score, but this time his shot was caught by the crossbar.

Although after the break it was already a little different football. Purely in favor of the “gunners”, who produced a simply murderous middle of the second half of the game and on this removed all questions. First, Arsenal scored from a set piece on the left wing on 57 minutes when Rice sent a free-kick on the edge of the goal and Gabriel closed. Secondly, seven minutes later, Skelly’s rush from the center circle allowed the defender to then play on the left side of the possession for Martinelli, who played Oblak with a calm shot into the far corner.

And after that, the partners quickly created an excuse for a double by Yokeres, who at the moment with Eze’s assist was a little lucky with a ricochet from the defender, while Gabriel later headed the forward into an empty net. Yes, again the standard played in favor of Arteta’s team. No one saw a decent response from “Cholo” to all this, and his substitutions did not have any impact on the game at all with such intensity of the opponents’ effective shots.

In the next round, Arsenal of London will visit Slavia Prague, and Atletico Madrid will host the Belgian Union.

Atletico: Oblak — Llorente, Jimenez (Baena, 63), Le Norman, Ganzko — Simeone (Griezmann, 72), Barrios, Koke (Gallagher, 63), Gonzalez (Ruggeri, 63) — Serlot (Almada, 72), Alvarez.

Warning: Submendi — Jimenez, Le Norman