Key events
86 min Arsenal have had greater European nights – the finals of 1970 and 1994, the win in Juventus in 1980 – but this is surely their best in north London, certainly at the Emirates.
85 min: Real substitution Brahim Diaz for Rodrygo.
83 min Real are hunting desperately for a goal. You wouldn’t write them off, even at 3-0 down, but they would need an unprecedented act of escapology.
81 min Before tonight, Declan Rice had never scored a direct free-kick in his professional career. That’s bonkers.
80 min: Arsenal substitution A weary Declan Rice is replaced by Kieran Tierney. He’s able to walk off so if there is an injury it hopefully isn’t too bad.
79 min: Real substitution Fran Garcia comes on for David Alaba, who had a pretty torrid night against Saka.
The goal stands! There was a pass from Rice to Trossard in the build-up that looked tight for offside, but the goal has been given.
Arsenal are 3-0 up against Real Madrid! Lewis-Skelly zipped infield from the left, as he has all night, and played a short square pass to Merino on the edge of the area. He whipped a superb shot on the turn that beat Courtois low to his right. The placement was perfect and Merino’s shot had the element of surprise as well; it’s such a good finish. And it’s the worst goal of the night!
Hang on, this might be offside.
GOAL! Arsenal 3-0 Real Madrid (Merino 75)
What the hell is happening here?
74 min: Arsenal substitution Leandro Trossard replaces the magnificent Bukayo Saka. He’s limping slightly but doesn’t look particularly worried; it’s probably just soreness after being fouled all night.
73 min A word too for Bukayo Saka, who was fouled for both goals. Arsenal’s giants have stood up tonight, and then some.
72 min: Real substitution Lucas Vazquez on for Luka Modric.
Declan Rice has scored another monstrous free-kick! This was even better than the first. He flashed it over the wall and straight into the top corner as Courtois dived in vain to his left.
Courtois left a gap on that side, thinking Rice would go to the near post, but a 40-man wall wouldn’t have stopped that. Two utterly, utterly brilliant free-kicks. Bend it like Declan.
GOAL! Arsenal 2-0 Real Madrid (Rice 70)
I CANNOT SPAKE!
69 min Camavinga was booked for that foul, which means he’ll miss the second leg. Rice is over the free-kick, which this time is to the left of centre.
68 min Arsenal come again and Saka is fouled 25 yards from goal by Camavinga. This is pulsating stuff.
68 min: Off the line again! The resulting corner is half cleared to Rice, whose snapshot from 15 yards beats the diving Courtois and is kicked off the line by Bellingham!
67 min: Triple chance for Arsenal! Lewis-Skelly pokes a short pass through to Martinelli, whose fierce shot across goal is beaten away by Courtois. Merino’s adroit follow-up is blocked on the line superbly by Alaba, then another Merino effort is punched dramatically over the bar by Courtois.
67 min “Arsenal may have served up a steaming helping of Rice,” says Peter Oh, “but this only means that Real Madrid will answer with a stunning paella!”
66 min Rice can’t quite sort his feet out after another excellent run into the area. At the moment Arsenal look the likelier scorers.
65 min Real will still be favourites to go through if it ends 1-0, but 2-0 is a different story. Or, to put it another way, this tie is poised as beautifully as one of Adebisi’s hats.
63 min Saka’s corner is claimed with decisive authority by Courtois. He’s a class act, which is another reason Rice’s free-kick was so good. Even Courtois couldn’t lay a glove on it.
62 min Saka – starting his first game since mid-December, lest we forget – runs at Alaba to win another corner.
61 min Bellingham meets Modric’s corner with a speculative scorpion kick that goes straight into the arms of Raya. I think it was a scorpion kick anyway; either way it was a comfortable save.
60 min Vinicius runs at Tim-berrrrrrrrrrrrrr to win a corner. Everyone is still taking in that free-kick from Declan Rice; it was nigh-on perfect.
Declan Rice has scored a marvellous free-kick! It was slightly to the right of centre, apparently more suited to the left-footed Saka, but Rice smacked it round the wall with just enough curl to take the ball a couple of centimetres inside the near post. Courtois flew to his left but couldn’t get near it. Honestly, that is a sensational free-kick.
GOAL! Arsenal 1-0 Real Madrid (Rice 58)
Pick that effer out!
58 min Rice and Saka are over the free-kick…
57 min Rice does look a threat when he makes off-the-ball runs in the inside-left channel. Meanwhile the main threat, Saka, zips infield and is fouled 25 yards from goal by Alaba. Saka has been a joy tonight.
56 min Martinelli feeds a square ball into Partey, who opens his body to slide an imaginative first-time pass towards Rice in the area. It’s slightly overhit, though, and that allows Asencio to come across; Rice stretches to meet the ball but can only kick it against Asencio and out for a throw-in.
54 min Partey is booked for a cynical block on Camavinga. It was probably 50:50, but there is certainly a feeling at the Emirates that the referee is the opposite of a homer.
53 min A long spell of possession in the middle third for Real. The legitimate form of timewasting.
51 min: Quarter-chance for Mbappe Bellingham, on the edge of the box, cushions a lovely first-time pass into Mbappe on the left side of the area. The angle is tight, there’s nobody to cross to and Mbappe smashes a rising drive into the side netting. Raya had it covered.
50 min A scruffy start to the second half. That suits Real; in truth they’d probably take a one-goal defeat, such is their record in second legs at the Bernabeu.
Mikel Merino has had a quiet night, not for the want of trying, and I wonder whether the slippery movement of Trossard would be a greater threat to Real as the game starts to open up.
48 min “I’ve tried it, spent most of the break trying it,” begins Charles Antaki. “But no; barrel-sided Micky Quinn in this Arsenal, or indeed any team in the Premier League in the last 25 years, is too hard a job for the imagination. He ended up in the Watford team of 1995, and that sounds about right.”
This is the same Mick Quinn who scored a hat-trick at Highbury on the opening day of the 1993-94 season. The second goal is majestic!
46 min Arsenal begin the second half.
“The match has been decent but not particularly entertaining,” says Peter Oh. “Bland shirt sponsor uniformity doesn’t help. The home team’s shirt: Fly an airline. The visitors’: Fly the same airline. Boring!
“I liked these teams better when it was Sega versus Teka.”
Or even Siemens v O2, as it was when they met in 2005-06. A more innocent time!
Half-time reading
Half time: Arsenal 0-0 Real Madrid
All square at the Emirates. Both teams will feel they could be ahead: Arsenal created more openings, with Bukayo Saka superb, but Real had the clearest chance when Kylian Mbappe shot too close to David Raya.
See you in 10 minutes. For all the promise of the first half, Arsenal surely have to win tonight.
45+2 min Camavinga blooters high and wide from distance.
45 min Two minutes of added business.
45 min On reflection, ie having seen a replay, Rice’s header wasn’t right in the corner. It was a tough chance and a good effort, but a player with his standards will be frustrated he didn’t do better.
44 min: Double save by Courtois! Timber’s short-range cross is met superbly by Rice, who powers a header into the ground and across goal. Courtois dives to his right to push it away and springs to his feet to push away Martinelli’s stinging follow-up. The first save was the best one.
43 min A few minutes ago I was going to type ‘Arsenal need half-time’ but now they are on the front foot. It’s been an intriguing half, an arm-wrestle rather than a slugfest.
40 min Odegaard and Saka are starting to work their magic. Odegaard slices Real open with a superb return pass to Saka, who beats Alaba for pace and shoots first time from the angle. It hits Rudiger in the six-yard box and flashes across the face of goal.
39 min “Timber must be a great name for football commentators to belt out,” says Peadar de Burca. “My own favourite was Goikoetxea!!!! as it always sounded like the gates of Hell had broken open, which was usually the case when Andoni from Bilbao was putting the hurt on.”
You do realise the commentators say ‘Tim-ber’ rather than ‘Tim-berrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!’? In terms of phonetic appeal, I’ve always had a soft spot for Julio Olarticoechea. I like Gunter Netzer too, mainly because it evokes a life I’ll never lead.
38 min If Mick Quinn was playing up front tonight, even at the age of 62, Arsenal would be 1-0 up now.
37 min: Chance for Arsenal! At the moment the game is being played on Real’s terms, though it only takes a moment to change that. It almost comes when Saka goes outside Alaba in the area and drives a magnificent ball that flashes right across the six-yard box. It was crying out for somebody to roof it from four yards but there were no Arsenal players in there.
34 min This is Real’s best spell, and the Emirates is becoming a more nervous place. The first goal is huge, Brobdingnagian even.
33 min “If Lewis-Skelly lived his entire life to date all over again, he’d still be two years younger than Modric,” says Zach Neeley. “They’re using every second of that man.”
31 min: Big chance for Mbappe! This time Mbappe times his run perfectly, in between Saliba and Kiwior, to receive Bellingham’s sliderule pass from the left. Mbappe opens his body for the Thierry Henry finish – when in Rome and all that – but hits it too close to Raya and he makes a relatively comfortable save.
30 min Lewis-Skelly is making the extra man in midfield when Arsenal have the ball, so much so that he’s just received a pass in the inside-right channel. For once, his pass forward is poor and Real have a throw-in.
27 min Arsenal’s promising start is beginning to evaporate. They’re not being outplayed, far from it, but they haven’t worked Courtois as much as they would have hoped.
25 min Timber is up and about.
23 min Mbappe, slightly offside, wafts over the bar from the edge of the area. The oprning stemmed from an exceedingly dodgy square pass from Kiwior that put Saliba in trouble. Vinicius Jr challenged him and then played in Mbappe, who started his run too early and was offside.
Timber has hurt himself while trying to challenge Mbappe. He’s down and needs treatment.
22 min “Are Real already time wasting?” sniffs Joe Pearson. “Come on!”
Are they?
21 min Odegaard seems to be fouled by Camavinga, 25 yards from goal, but the referee waves him up. Real break and Vinicius, on the edge of the area, shoots a few yards of the far post.
Had that gone in, there would have been mayham because it looked a clear foul on Odegaard.
