How Arsenal played to their strengths to claim a historic win over Real Madrid

History repeats itself as Arsenal overturn a two-goal deficit in a Champions League quarter-final in front of a boisterous Emirates

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Arsenal overcame Real Madrid in sensational style to become Champions League semi-finalists once again. In front of over 22,000 supporters – a record for a midweek Women's Champions League game in England - the intensity that the Emirates faithful brought was returned with interest by their team, who turned around a two-goal first-leg deficit to prevail 3–0 on the night and 3–2 on aggregate.

The general feeling going into the tie was that an Arsenal turnaround would be improbable - but far from impossible. On a beautiful spring day, which became a mild Madrid-like March evening by kick-off, thoughts of the rain-soaked mud bath from the first leg were washed away. Having gone from British conditions last week to almost Iberian weather on Wednesday, a further twist of irony followed with the side from England benefitting from conditions that lent themselves to a possession-based style of football.

That said, Arsenal's performance in the first half of the second leg could be best described as 'sterile domination'. Arsenal struggled to convert territorial domination into genuine goal threat and, by the break, they produced just five shots (one on target) to show for their endeavours.