Antoine Griezmann scored late for 10-man Atletico Madrid to draw at Arsenal 1-1 in the first leg of their Europa league semifinal on Thursday.
Griezmann's 82nd-minute equalizer following some clumsy defending from laurent Koscielny was against the run of play but was reward for the team's stout defending in the aftermath of Sime Vrsaljko's early sending off. With the away goal, Atletico has to be considered the favorite to progress to the final on May 16 in the French city of lyon.
The second leg is in the Spanish capital next Thursday. The winner looks like it will play Marseille, which beat Salzburg 2-0 in their first leg with goals from Florian Thauvin and Clinton N'Jie.
Atletico coach Diego Simeone, who was sent to the stands in the 13th for remonstrating with French referee Clement Turpin, was fulsome in his praise of his team's defensive performance.
"These players are basically heroes," he said. "They stood firm for 80-something minutes in a really tremendous way."
Simeone's game plan had to be revised as soon as the 10th minute when Vrsaljko, who had been booked for an early challenge on Jack Wilshere, picked up a second yellow for a late tackle on Alexandre lacazette.
From that moment on, Arsenal dominated, but it wasn't able to translate that dominance into a goal until the 61st. Following some neat interplay in and around the Atletico penalty area, Wilshere looped a cross to the far post which was steered in by a leaping lacazette.
With just eight minutes of regular time remaining, Griezmann pounced on a long punt forward that was badly mishandled by Koscielny. Instead of just booting the ball into the stands, the Arsenal defender tried to flick it back over his head. Through on goal, Griezmann went past goalkeeper David Ospina to flick the ball in past defender Shkodran Mustafi, who slipped.
Aaron Ramsey went close to regaining the lead for Arsenal in the 87th with a header that required a finger-tip save from Atletico goalkeeper Jan Oblak.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said conceding late on when his team was in control was a disappointment, especially as the task in hand after taking the lead was to make sure his team was not caught out by a long ball.
"We can only look at ourselves," he said.
Wenger, who announced last week he was standing down as Arsenal coach at the end of the season after nearly 22 years at the helm, said his team knows what it has to do next week.
"We have nothing to lose," he said.
The Europa league is Arsenal's last chance of a trophy. Winning European football's second-tier competition would also give Arsenal a route back into the Champions league.
Marseille wins
Dimitri Payet looked back to his best after setting up both goals as Marseille beat Salzburg 2-0 in the first leg of their Europa league semifinal on Thursday.
Winger Florian Thauvin headed in Payet's curling free kick deep to the back post in the 15th minute, although video replays showed Thauvin headed the ball onto his outstretched hand before it went in. It was Thauvin's 22nd goal of an outstanding season.
Payet is fighting to keep his France squad place, but another performance like this will make it hard for coach Didier Deschamps to freeze him out of Russia. He was involved in all of Marseille's best moves at Stade Velodrome, and even chased back to harry Salzburg's players.
But he did the most damage with his passing, expertly setting up substitute Clinton N'Jie for Marseille's second goal in the 63rd.
Salzburg beat Marseille at home and drew away in the group stage this season. But the Austrian side did not threaten until the 29th, when a fine run and shot from right back Stefan lainer forced a smothering save from goalkeeper Yohann Pele.
"You can't reach the final without effort, sacrifice and suffering," Marseille center half Adil Rami said. "But we're still a long way off."