Arsenal’s players have been stung by their Champions League quarter-finals exit on Wednesday but manager Mikel Arteta said they still have something “beautiful” to play for in the last few weeks of the season as they chase the Premier League title.

Arsenal campaign in Europe’s elite club competition came to an end with a 1-0 defeat by Bayern Munich and follows their elimination from both domestic cup tournaments.

The north London club are still in the hunt for the league title, however, sitting second on 71 points, level with Liverpool and two behind leaders Manchester City.

With City in action in the FA Cup this weekend, Arsenal can return to the top of the table with a win at Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday.

“What (the players) need is that we stand right next to them, give them our support, our love, and I will have to pick it up because on Saturday we have a big, big, big game,” Arteta told reporters on Wednesday

“We’re still playing for the Premier League and I really want it. We have to show now that we are capable of turning this around.

“(The pain) is there and it’s not going to go away, certainly tonight, but I can guarantee you by tomorrow we are fully focused on Wolves and everybody’s lifted.

“What we still have to play for is beautiful.”

This was Arsenal’s first season in the Champions League since 2017, and their first quarter-final since 2010, and Arteta said small margins separated the clubs at this stage of the competition.

“Those margins sometimes are coming from something else, that maybe we don’t have yet,” he added.

“We have to learn it, when you look historically, all the clubs to get to certain stages, it took them seven, eight, some of them 10 years to do it

-Reuters

Real Madrid goalkeeper Andriy Lunin was their penalty shootout hero as they beat Manchester City on Wednesday to reach the Champions League semi-finals but he said his save from Bernardo Silva’s spot-kick was down to pure luck.

Real midfielder Federico Valverde was named UEFA’s man-of-the-match, but Lunin had made a strong case to be handed the award after making two saves in their 4-3 shootout win after an inspired performance as they drew their quarter-final second leg 1-1.

Silva’s penalty was struck tamely straight down the middle of the goal but Lunin said that a decision taken before the shootout with Real’s coaches enabled him to make what turned out to be an easy save.

“I needed to take a risk with one of the kicks, we picked one (to stay in the middle) and thank goodness it worked out in our favour,” Lunin told Movistar Plus+ with a sigh of relief.

“It’s an away Champions League game and we went through a lot of suffering… but I’m very grateful to the team for everything they’ve fought for. I can’t imagine myself running like my team mates did today.”

The 25-year-old Ukraine keeper was forced to wait for his chance at Real, having been behind Belgium star Thibaut Courtois in the pecking order.

Before this season, he had made only nine Spanish league appearances for the club since signing from Zorya Luhansk in 2018.

He spent his first two seasons in Spain on loan at Leganes, Valladolid and Oviedo, but after Courtois tore his ACL earlier this season, he was given the chance to battle for a starting spot with Kepa Arrizabalaga, who had been signed on a season-long loan deal from Chelsea

Lunin eventually asserted himself as first choice and his performance on Wednesday will have gone a long way towards proving to fans and pundits that he deserved his chance.

“There are games that you have to suffer, that you have to overcome the challenges, that you can’t always play with the ball and be the best team on the pitch. Tonight was like that,” Lunin said.

“For me it has been a great experience. I’m exhausted, it’s the first time in my career that I play a game like this, 120 minutes, penalties, the pressure and the responsibility. It’s hard to explain the feeling.”

-Reuters

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola was gracious in defeat after their dreams of an historic second successive treble were dashed by a stubborn Real Madrid on Wednesday in a Champions League quarter-final game the English club had thoroughly dominated.

Fourteen-times champions Madrid held on to dispatch the holders 4-3 in a shootout at Etihad Stadium to secure their semi-final berth against Bayern Munich, sweet revenge after City ousted the Spaniards in last year’s semis on their way to winning their first title.

“Congratulations to Real Madrid, they defend so deep, with incredible solidarity,” Guardiola said. “We did everything. I have no regrets about what we’ve done. Defensively, offensively, we played exceptional in all departments, in everything, and unfortunately we couldn’t win, so that’s what it is.”

After capturing their first treble — Champions League, FA Cup and Premier League titles — last season, they appeared on track to become the first team in history to claim the three titles in back-to-back years.

But despite completely dominating Madrid, firing 33 shots to Madrid’s eight and taking 18 corners to just one for the visitors, Guardiola’s men could not finish them off.

Kevin De Bruyne scored in the 76th minute to cancel out Rodrygo’s 12th-minute goal, but both the Belgian and City’s goal-scoring machine Erling Haaland squandered several scoring chances as the tie finished 1-1 on the night and 4-4 on aggregate.

Victory looked in City’s hands when Luka Modric failed to convert Madrid’s opening spot kick. But momentum swung when Bernardo Silva shot straight into keeper Andriy Lunin’s hands, leaving Madrid’s Nacho and Antonio Ruediger to seal the win.

“Pep Guardiola is a gentleman, always has been,” Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti told Movistar. “He congratulated us, wished us good luck and that’s what a real gent does.”

Despite the heartbreaking ending, City fans serenaded the team off the Etihad pitch.

“Football is about scoring goals and from the penalty spot they did it a bit better than us,” Guardiola said. “The performance and the commitment and everything was exceptional.

“With penalties, you win some, you lose some. For the way we played, we should have done it before. But we did not convert the chances we had. We performed to our best, but it was not good enough.”

City now switch their focus to their quest for another FA Cup title on Saturday when they clash with Chelsea in the semi-finals at Wembley.

Asked how he will pick up his players, Guardiola said: “We’ll see tomorrow. Now it’s rest. It’s the semi-final of the FA Cup, we will try to compete the best we can.”

Guardiola’s team also have a two-point lead at the top of the Premier League with six games remaining.

-Reuters