Diego Costa shattered Arsenal’s dream of taking the Europa cup by giving Atletico Madrid a 1-0 win over Wenger’s boys. The goal was initiated by Antoine Griezmann whose pass to Diego Costa resulted in the stunning goal in the 47th minute. This loss gives Atletico Madrid a 2 - 1 win over Arsenal on aggregate. The first leg between both teams ended in a 1 - 1 draw.
This is not the first time that Diego Costa has crushed the dreams of Arsenal. When he played for Chelsea, he caused issues for Arsenal in many meetings. We can remember in September 2015 when he was solely responsible for Arsenal losing two of their players.
The second half started off promising when Ramsey launched his attack on Atletico’s goal. However, the chance was wasted as was so many chances throughout the second half.
Atletico’s defenders made sure that the trio of Arsenal strikers were effectively stopped from making any impact on the game. Arsenal’s attackers had to resort to long range shots. Xhaka attempted some long range shots but these were rebuffed by Jan Oblak. Mkhitaryan also made an effort to get on the books but found it difficult to find the back of the net.
The fate of the Gunners were not made any better when when their captain Laurent Koscielny sustained an injury to his leg and had to be carted off in a stretcher.
To be honest, Arsenal have struggled all through the season to secure their wins. Unfortunately, this loss also means that Arsene Wenger’s retirement will end in a fizzle. Arsene will end his final season without lifting any silverware with his beloved team. Wenger spent 22 years with Arsenal and have had so many high points and more recently several low points in his time with the Gunners.
This defeat sustained by the Gunners have also dashed their chances of participating in the Champions League for the second time in two seasons. Atletico on the other hand, will move on to the Europa League final and battle the french side Marseille in the east central city of Lyon, France.