MADRID: Arsenal stamped out any chance of a Real Madrid comeback to reach the Champions League semi-finals after a 2-1 victory in the Bernabeu Stadium completed a 5-1 aggregate win over the holders.

Madrid, 15-timesa winners, never looked like clawing back a 3-0 deficit from last week’s quarter-final first leg and when Bukayo Saka scored for the visitors in the 65th minute their fate was effectively sealed.

Vinicius Junior seized on a rare defensive slip a couple of minutes later to rouse the home crowd, but it proved too little too late as Carlo Ancelotti’s side exited in feeble fashion.

Arsenal’s superiority over the two legs was underlined in stoppage time as Gabriel Martinelli burst through to score. They will face Paris St Germain in their first Champions League semi-final since 2009.

Real’s knack of extricating themselves from difficult positions in a competition they won six times in the previous 11 seasons deserted them as they were comprehensively outplayed.

Real needed a storming start and Mbappe had the ball in the Arsenal net in the opening minutes but was clearly offside when chesting in a Vinicius cross.

Arsenal were in no mood to simply sit and protect their lead though and Saka forced a great save from Courtois. They were handed the chance to kill off the tie when Raul Asencio needlessly hauled down Mikel Merino from a corner and referee Francois Letexier eventually awarded a penalty after checking a pitch-side VAR monitor.

Saka opted for a Panenka-style chipped penalty and Courtois clawed away the ball.

It looked like a potentially pivotal moment and when Letexier pointed to the penalty spot at the other end after Kylian Mbappe tumbled under minimal contact from Rice, Arsenal’s night looked like taking a turn for the worse.

After five painstaking minutes, however, Letexier was again invited by VAR to view the monitor and to a chorus of whistles from the home fans, overturned his original decision.

Mbappe barely had a sniff of a chance as Arsenal showed great control and Saka made up for his first-half miss with a clinical finish after being sent clear by Merino.

William Saliba gifted Real a lifeline when he was caught in possession on the edge of his area, allowing Vinicius to score, but there was never any sense of panic in the visiting ranks.

Martinelli put the icing on the cake in added time, again from a Merino assist, to send Arsenal’s fans into raptures.

Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti said: “We have to be honest, in the two games Arsenal have deserved it and have reached the semi-finals.

“There are two sides to football, the happy part that has happened to us many times and the sad part we have to handle in the same way. It has happened to us fewer times than to other teams but we have to manage it because it allows us to be better in the next games.”

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