Arsenal have booked their place in the 2025/26 UEFA Champions League final after defeating Atletico Madrid 1-0 at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday, May 5 to progress 2-1 on aggregate — ending a 20-year wait to reach European club football’s grandest stage.
Bukayo Saka’s 44th-minute strike was the difference on the night, sending the Gunners through to the final for just the second time in their history.
They will now face either Bayern Munich or champions Paris Saint-Germain, with the showpiece event scheduled for Budapest’s Puskas Stadium on Saturday, May 30.
The breakthrough came when Leandro Trossard unleashed a stinging strike that Jan Oblak could only parry, with the ball falling perfectly for Saka, who was waiting at the back post to tap home and send the Emirates into raptures just before the break.
The second half was a stern test of Arsenal’s defensive resolve.
Atletico threw everything at the Gunners in search of an equalizer, but Arsenal’s backline remained impenetrable, seeing out the victory with composure to clinch their passage to Budapest.
The result extends Arsenal’s unbeaten run to 14 consecutive matches in UEFA Champions League history — a record for the club.
It is also a significant milestone for manager Mikel Arteta, who has steadily guided the club up the European ladder, reaching the quarter-finals in 2023/24 and the semi-finals last season, before going all the way this time around.
Arsenal became the first team in Champions League history to win all eight matches in the league phase this season, before eliminating Bayer Leverkusen and Sporting Lisbon on their way to the final four.
The 20-year wait is the longest between Champions League final appearances by an English club since Liverpool in 2005, and the last time Arsenal featured in the final was their defeat to Barcelona in Paris in 2006.
One more victory at the end of the month would see them lift the famous trophy for the first time in the club’s 139-year history.
The final opponent will be confirmed after Bayern Munich host Paris Saint-Germain in the second leg of the other semi-final on Wednesday.
