Atletico Madrid spoils Wenger’s Europa League dream, beats Arsenal 1-0

Arsenal played one of its best games in recent times when it met Atletico Madrid in the Spanish capital, but at the end, it failed to give its manager, Arsene Wenger the farewell gift he longed for.

The first leg of the Europa League semifinal tie ended 1-1 in London and to survive the race for the final, the Gunners needed to get a score draw or an outright victory over its adversaries.

But that proved a task too difficult for the silky legs of the Londoners, whose manager longed to win this competition in his final year at the Emirates.

Arsenal started the brighter side, but its task became tougher when captain Laurent Koscielny was forced off in the first half with an unfortunate torn Achilles tendon, which is set to rule him out of the World Cup for France.

That unfortunate incident did not dampen the Londoners’ desire for a good result, but Diego Costa made the job even more difficult when he capitalised on Hector Bellerin’s dereliction of duty to score what proved to be the match winner on the day in the dying minutes of the first half.