Mikel Arteta: Arsenal now have the momentum to win Champions League | OneFootball

The Gunners are in the Champions League semi-finals for the first time in 16 years

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Mikel Arteta believes Arsenal knocking Real Madrid out of the Champions League has given them “momentum” in their bid to go all the way.

The Gunners beat Real Madrid 2-1 on Wednesday night at the Bernabeu to win their quarter-final tie 5-1 on aggregate.

Bukayo Saka, who also missed a penalty, scored the opener for Arsenal in the second leg and Gabriel Martinelli scored a late winner to stun the Bernabeu.

The Gunners will now face Paris Saint-Germain in the semi-finals and Arteta believes his side can go all the way.

“The feeling that we have is a reality, basically. And the inner feeling that I had before the tie,” he said.

“While the players were transmitting and how prepared I could feel the team, that we are ready to compete against anybody. And now we have to continue to do that because I think we have some momentum now.

Where we finished last year and the way we've done it this year, against the team with the highest honours in the competition, is incredible

Mikel Arteta

“It’s a team that you can feel today how hungry, how determined, and the ambition that it’s got. So we’re going for more, for sure.

“It’s certainly another massive step. Where we finished last year and the way we've done it this year against the team with the highest honours in the competition, it’s incredible. But I want to give credit to them.

“It was my first time as a coach in that dugout and today I realised after three minutes that in this stadium, anything is possible.

“I mean, they are specialists of creating such a chaos, such a belief, and it’s very difficult to understand really what’s going on in the game and have certain certainty about how we control it. But I think the players showed their own maturity.”

Saka bounced back from his penalty miss to score a great chipped goal and Arteta hailed his mentality.

“I can go on and on with individuals and a lot of different cases that we had in that team,” he said.

“But with Bukayo, again, he stepped up. He didn’t score, obviously. That could be a turning point emotionally in the game because he gave them a lot of belief.

“But then the way he handled the situation, the way he played afterwards, and the first time that he showed at his age, the first time that he played in this stadium, incredible.”