Arsenal 1-1 Atletico Madrid: 3 Things That Went Right For Atletico Madrid
Arsenal had the chance of a lifetime or two, as they were handed the golden opportunity after Šime Vrsaljko lost his head, twice in a matter of 8 minutes to get sent off for two yellow-card offences.
The Gunners then piled on the pressure but the Atletico defence didn't crack until the hour mark when Alexandre Lacazette rose to manoeuvre the ball into the back of the net with a towering header.
Arsenal knew that they probably needed another goal to get some breathing space before they have to do it all over again in Madrid in a week's time.
However, their failure to put away the chances and the tie to bed, despite the numerical advantage, will most likely come to haunt them as Antoine Griezmann got his side an invaluable away goal after a comedy of errors by the infamous Arsenal defence.
On that note, here is a look at three things that went right for the side from Madrid:
#3 Arsenal's failure to put away their chances
The Gunners couldn't believe their luck when they were handed, rightly so, a numerical advantage with less than ten minutes on the clock. What followed was an exercise in patience for the fans at the Emirates as they contrived to pass up chances after chance before they finally troubled the scorers.
With all of Atletico's men behind the ball for what seemed like the entirety of the game, Arsenal weren't able to find as much time and space as they would've liked on the edge of the opposition box to be able to pick that intricate ball through that they so often crave.
They did, however, manage to get their wing-backs in support and made the numbers count as both Nacho Monreal and Hector Bellerin kept finding themselves in behind the Atleti defence but were unable to find a telling cross. Jack Wilshere had better luck with crossing as he managed to find the Frenchman to get the scoring underway.
They quickly reverted to not finding the back of the net in the following half an hour or so and the Spaniards made them pay as they managed to get a priceless away goal.
Arsenal went out of their way to not make their numerical advantage count after Atletico had gone out of theirs to hand the hosts the initiative.