“Demolition” – Collymore reacts to Arsenal’s Champions League victory against Real Madrid
Arsenal will be playing in the Champions League semi-finals after seeing off Real Madrid in emphatic fashion in the quarter-final tie. Mikel Arteta’s side followed up last week’s 3-0 victory at the Emirates with another memorable win at the Santiago Bernabeu – this time by a 2-1 scoreline.
Real Madrid did a lot of talking in the media prior to the second leg, but Arsenal did their talking on the pitch. They earned many plaudits for their 180-minute performance against the defending champions, and rightly so.
Collymore believes Arsenal can win the Champions League
In his exclusive CaughtOffside column, Collymore spoke of being very impressed by Arsenal’s display at the Bernabeu. He also gave his verdict on whether they can win the Champions League for the first time.
“Arsenal were excellent last night against Real Madrid. The damage was done in the first leg with a very aggressive display, and I think that was the difference the two teams. Arsenal were not intimidated, and for them, that is a big step that shows their growth – not only towards winning the Champions League, but also the Premier League. That progression has been lacking at times under Mikel Arteta.
“It was a better good two-legged demolition of Real Madrid, who are a team of individuals. It remains to be seen whether they can do that against PSG, but they should be confident as I think that they would not show as much naivety as Aston Villa did during key moments in their tie. And they should have more quality too with guys like Bukayo Saka.
“In my opinion, there is nothing stopping Arsenal from winning the Champions League, as there is very little between the four teams left in the competition. PSG and Barcelona are two teams that also do not have much experience of being at this stage in the competition with these squads, and Inter Milan are a team that many probably did not expect to get this far.
“For Arsenal, I think they will need to be even better against PSG than they were against Real Madrid, but can they do it? I think they can.”
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