Everything that Arsenal had poured into a hugely impressive Champions League campaign came down to this. It was not about more plaudits, more pride. It was purely about taking the next step, moving to the verge of history.
On an increasingly frenzied night, when the ghosts of previous near misses under Mikel Arteta provided a part of the story, they made surely the boldest advance so far under their manager. It is the prospect of what comes next in the final against Paris Saint-Germain or Bayern Munich that tantalises. It was a night when Arteta struggled to keep a lid on his emotions. Ditto his Atlético Madrid counterpart, Diego Simeone. But it only made the final whistle sound more beautiful for everybody with Arsenal in their hearts.
Suffering is unavoidable at junctures like these and Arsenal hearts skipped beats at various points of the second half, especially when the Atlético substitute, Alexander Sørloth swung at an inviting low cross on 86 minutes and missed.
Arsenal deserved to progress. They were the better team in the first half and they did enough after the interval, two certainties seeing them through. Their bolted door defence. And Bukayo Saka. It was the winger who scored the decisive goal at the end of the first half – a close-range finish after the Atlético goalkeeper, Jan Oblak, coughed up a Leandro Trossard shot. Arsenal are into only their second final; the first since 2006. They will believe in themselves to spring the upset in Budapest on 30 May.
