ARSENAL secured their passage into the Champions League semi-finals following an incredible performance across two legs to beat holders Real Madrid 5-1 on aggregate.
The first game at the Emirates was spearheaded by Declan Rice’s stunning brace of free-kicks, while the Bernabeu second leg saw a more controlled display as they snatched a late winner.
The convincing win over the 15-time champions booked them a place in the semi-final for the first time since 2009, when they lost 4-1 to Manchester United.
However, the Gunners could be backed by the winds of football history this year.
That is because of the strange omen which befalls the competition when the final is held in Munich, Germany.
There have been four finals held in the city; 1979, 1993, 1997 and 2012, with the 2025 final being the fifth.
The first three were held at the Olympiastadion, while like this year the 2012 one was held at the Allianz Arena.
And Arsenal may have cause to celebrate because all four previous matches have continued a stunning trend of crowning a brand new European champion, two of which have been English teams.
The first Munich final in 1979 was played out between Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest and Swedish outfit Malmo.
It ended in 1-0 victory for Forest thanks to Trevor Francis’ first-half goal.
A repeat 1-0 result followed in the 1993 final as French club Marseille beat AC Milan to win their only Champions League title to date, with Basile Boli again scoring the games only goal just before half-time.
German club Borussia Dortmund were the first club from the host nation to benefit from the omen, beating Juventus 3-1 with a brace of goals from Karl-Heinz Riedle and a third from Lars Ricken in the second half.
Chelsea are the most recent beneficiaries of the trend, beating Bayern Munich on penalties at the Allianz Arena with Didier Drogba scoring a late equaliser before scoring the winning penalty in the shootout.
Naturally, this means the omen also applies to Arsenal’s semi-final opponents this season, Paris Saint-Germain.
Like the Gunners, PSG have been in one final and lost it, falling to Bayern Munich 1-0 in 2020.
The French giants beat Aston Villa 5-4 to book their spot in the semi-final.
Speaking on their chances of winning the competition for the first time, Mikel Arteta said: “The feeling that we have is a reality, basically. And the inner feeling that I had before the tie.
“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.
“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.”
Arsenal’s semi-final games will be played out on April 29 at the Emirates and May 7 at the Parc des Princes.
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