Arsenal reaches first Champions League final in 20 years after Saka’s goal secures win over Atletico

Ar­se­nal is back in the Cham­pi­ons League fi­nal for the first time in 20 years thanks to a late first-half goal from Bukayo Sa­ka that se­cured a 1-0 win over Atleti­co Madrid on Tues­day.

Sa­ka was on hand to slot in the re­bound af­ter Le­an­dro Trossard’s shot was saved by Jan Oblak in the 45th minute to put Ar­se­nal up 2-1 on ag­gre­gate in the sec­ond leg of their semi­fi­nal.

The Gun­ners’ stingy de­fense did the rest as Ar­se­nal has now kept a clean sheet at home in all three knock­out rounds. The team al­so con­ced­ed a com­pe­ti­tion-low four goals in win­ning all eight of its match­es in the league phase.

It will be on­ly Ar­se­nal’s sec­ond fi­nal in Eu­rope’s pre­mier com­pe­ti­tion, hav­ing lost the 2006 ti­tle match to Barcelona. This time it will face ei­ther de­fend­ing cham­pi­on Paris Saint-Ger­main or Bay­ern Mu­nich in Bu­dapest, Hun­gary, on May 30. PSG won the pul­sat­ing first leg of their semi­fi­nal 5-4, and the sec­ond leg is in Mu­nich on Wednes­day.