Emirates Stadium: Abigail Silvester via flickr
Arsenal football club was founded in 1886, albeit as Dial Square, and with a number of name changes since. That is a lot of history, and as one of the most successful sides in English football, there have been many great moments over the past 137 years. Every Gooner will have their own special moment and a match, goal, player or incident that will last forever in their memory.
For the very lucky 55,000 or so Arsenal fans who were inside the ground for the club’s 3-0 win over Real Madrid, whatever their previous best Arsenal-moment was, they may just have a new one now. The resounding victory came on the 8th of April 2025 and that could be the date when the club took a huge step towards finally winning the Champions League.
Mikel Arteta’s men still have work to do in order to book their spot in the semis but they know they have one very big foot in the last four after their sensational win in north London. Real Madrid won the Liga and Champions League double in 2023/24 and to their star-packed, Carlo Ancelotti-managed squad, they added perhaps the world’s best player in Kylian Mbappe. And yet the Gunners humbled them at the Emirates, and will now eliminate the 15-time European champions if they win, draw, or lose by two goals or fewer in the Santiago Bernabeu on the 16th of April.
Assessing the win at the Emirates in isolation, it probably cannot go down as the club’s finest win. If the Gunners get turned over in Spain, and, let’s face it, with Real anything is possible, then the 3-0 win will be meaningless. It will have delivered a great night and a magical 90 minutes of football but it will stand for nothing and, if anything, will be a painful memory in the grander scheme of things.
However, if Arteta’s men can finish the job they started – and the bookies make them huge, huge favourites to qualify – then perhaps fans will look back on the first-leg win as one of Arsenal’s finest victories. But to do that they must not simply qualify for the semis, they must go all the way and win the 2025 Champions League.
There is a long way to go before all of that though but for now they are ranked among the favourites for glory. Should they come through their own games, PSG in the semis and perhaps Barca in the final, would prove huge obstacles to Arsenal glory. However, any team that gets past Real Madrid knows they can go all the way, so let’s see if Arteta and co. can see things out in the second leg.
Arsenal 3-0 Real Madrid: Rice Magic but Injury Concerns Dampen Party
Beating any team 3-0 in the quarter finals of the Champions League is a big deal but for a side that has never won the competition to overcome one with 15 titles to their name makes this win extra special. It may be many years before the Gunners get a better opportunity than this to go all the way and if they do claim glory, many will look back on this win as the moment everyone began to believe.
The result and performance were certainly ones to savour and the Gunners thoroughly deserved their win. Real, for all their stars, created little of note, aside from one chance for Mbappe, whilst at the other end Ancelotti was thankful to his keeper, Thibaut Courtois, for keeping Madrid in the tie. Arsenal had eight efforts on goal and the Belgian saved five, with there being nothing he could do about the three he conceded.
The game was 0-0 at half-time, despite the hosts squandering a couple of decent chances and boasting an xG just shy of one goal. They had more of the ball and twice as many shots on target as their much-vaunted hosts and must have feared a backlash in the second period.
Instead though, it was Arsenal who kicked on and made their superiority count. They restricted the visitors to just three shots (one on target) in the second 45 and took the lead after 58 minutes when Declan Rice curled a stunning freekick around the wall and into the net. Twelve minutes later he was at it again and this freekick was even better. It thundered into the net and was unsavable, being placed just inside post and crossbar.
In between the goals Courtois had pulled off a sensational triple save and Arsenal were surging forward. The home crowd were in wonderland, though probably desperate to hold onto their two-goal cushion, still anticipating a Real revival. But five minutes later Mikel Merino clipped home Myles Lewis-Skelly’s pass from the edge of the area to make it 3-0. Game, set and match …but whether it is tie too remains to be seen.
It was an incredible night for all Gunners but there were yet more injuries for the club. Both Bukayo Saka and Rice were subbed off, the former holding his ankle and the latter seemingly having taken a knock on the foot. Jurrien Timber was withdrawn very late on as well and had suffered a knock in the first half, but the good news for Arteta and all Arsenal fans is that all three issues appear minor.
Time will tell but after the match the manager was positive and it seems likely that Saka and Rice were withdrawn as cautionary measures. The Basque boss described both as minor knocks, and with the club largely able to focus solely on the Champions League, they, and Timber, can be rested for the club’s next match against Brentford.
Arsenal’s Greatest Win?
As we have made clear, it is probably too early to judge where this game stands in the pantheon of Arsenal’s greatest ever wins. It was a magical, joyous night, but without it ending in a trophy, it cannot stand alongside the other historic matches in the club’s history.
Games like the 1-0 win over Parma in the 1994 Cup Winners’ Cup final, the club’s many FA Cup final victories, and, of course, the insane 2-0 win at Anfield that sealed the title in 1989, will be remembered forever because they were about more than just that moment.
Will this 3-0 win be a flash in the pan, or the start of something truly special for the Gunners?