{"id":637267,"date":"2026-04-29T22:38:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T22:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/637267\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T22:38:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T22:38:12","slug":"atletico-and-arsenal-draw-1-1-after-defensive-battle-in-the-champions-league-semifinal-first-leg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/637267\/","title":{"rendered":"Atl\u00e9tico and Arsenal draw 1-1 after defensive battle in the Champions League semifinal first leg"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>       <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1777502291_239_f_webp.webp\" alt=\"Referee Danny Makkelie listens to a VAR review for a possible penalty.\" class=\"image__dam-img image__dam-img--loading\" onload=\"this.classList.remove('image__dam-img--loading')\" onerror=\"imageLoadError(this)\" height=\"2346\" width=\"3386\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmokjlkgp000a3b6qpjp140fb@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            It was far from the nine-goal thriller that Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich gave fans in the City of Light last night, but there are still plenty of talking points to take away from tonight\u2019s game.\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmokjpb0l000c3b6qzd7rzztg@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            And as the old saying goes, it really was a game of two halves.\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmokjrf2p000d3b6qc0pagi18@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            Arsenal was on top for the first 45 minutes and the scoreline reflected that. Diego Simeone\u2019s squad then came out like men possessed in the second half and managed to pull themselves level.\n    <\/p>\n<p>       <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1777502291_786_f_webp.webp\" alt=\"Atl\u00e9tico Madrid's Juli\u00e1n \u00c1lvarez celebrates after scoring a penalty to level the match at 1-1.\" class=\"image__dam-img image__dam-img--loading\" onload=\"this.classList.remove('image__dam-img--loading')\" onerror=\"imageLoadError(this)\" height=\"3426\" width=\"5053\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmokjtjvb000e3b6qmiqy3w93@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            But the main talking points will undoubtedly be around the referee and VAR.\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmokjxg4a000f3b6qmspagv07@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            Three penalty decisions were whistled in this game, and oddly enough, it seemed that each time a spot kick was awarded, the resulting VAR check became more onerous \u2013 with the final decision being overturned by the referee.\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmokjywyz000g3b6qaj13omfy@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            Regardless, the tie remains all square heading into the second leg at the Emirates on Tuesday. It doesn\u2019t really matter if either or both sides feel decisions tonight went against them, the task for the second leg is simple.\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmokk1876000h3b6q0wqewajy@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            Winner takes all.\n    <\/p>\n<p>       <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1777502292_294_f_webp.webp\" alt=\"Atl\u00e9tico Madrid's Koke shakes hands with Arsenal's Eberechi Eze after the match.\" class=\"image__dam-img image__dam-img--loading\" onload=\"this.classList.remove('image__dam-img--loading')\" onerror=\"imageLoadError(this)\" height=\"2318\" width=\"3417\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmokk1cds000i3b6qrmd7d4tk@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            For Atl\u00e9tico, a chance to return to its first final in a decade is at stake. For Arsenal, a first final in 20 years.\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmokk312v000j3b6qs8z3o3x9@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            For both, a chance to keep their dreams alive of lifting the biggest and most important trophy in the European club game for the very first time.\n    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was far from the nine-goal thriller that Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich gave fans in the City&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":637268,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-637267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=637267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/637268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}