{"id":625447,"date":"2026-05-05T20:06:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T20:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/625447\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T20:06:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T20:06:10","slug":"arsenal-strike-first-and-lead-atletico-madrid-with-a-spot-in-the-champions-league-final-at-stake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/625447\/","title":{"rendered":"Arsenal strike first and lead Atl\u00e9tico Madrid with a spot in the Champions League final at stake"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>       <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1778011570_938_f_webp.webp\" alt=\"Arsenal's Martin \u00d8degaard has a shot blocked by Atl\u00e9tico Madrid's Johnny Cardoso during last week's match in Spain.\" class=\"image__dam-img image__dam-img--loading\" onload=\"this.classList.remove('image__dam-img--loading')\" onerror=\"imageLoadError(this)\" height=\"2632\" width=\"3948\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmosv0gb5000d3b6qgdvgk3th@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            As we predicted last week, it was a tight and tense affair with little to separate these two sides.\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmosv0zbk000g3b6qsra366o3@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            Fast forward six days and on the evidence of what he saw, CNN\u2019s Senior Sports Analyst Darren Lewis believes that the impetus and momentum lies with Arsenal.\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmosv0zbk000i3b6qxbm519av@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            \u201cThey [Arsenal] will never have a better opportunity of finishing this season with a real flourish, and I think as far as Mikel Arteta is concerned, he\u2019ll be trying to shut out the noise,\u201d he told CNN\u2019s Amanda Davies on World Sport Tuesday.\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"pull-quote__text  vossi-pull-quote__text inline-placeholder\" data-editable=\"text\">\n                    \u201cThe teams that do well in the Champions League at the business end of the competition are the teams that can produce an X factor, something out of nothing.\n                <\/p>\n<p class=\"pull-quote__attribution inline-placeholder vossi-pull-quote__attribution\" data-editable=\"attribution\">\n                    Darren Lewis, CNN senior sports analyst\n                <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmosv4q64000n3b6qrsh20lli@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            \u201cI think Arsenal will be absolutely convinced they can do this.\u201d\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmosv0zbk000k3b6qgt17ugzf@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            And Darren\u2019s right &#8211; the stats don\u2019t lie.\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmosv0zbk000l3b6q3eqdxgrl@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            The Gunners are undefeated in their last eight games against Spanish sides.\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmosv0zbk000m3b6qzf7cara7@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            Atl\u00e9tico, by contrast, has lost six of their last seven away games to English teams, including on each of the last four occasions.\n    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As we predicted last week, it was a tight and tense affair with little to separate these two&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625448,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":["post-625447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=625447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}