Six appearances against Arsenal. Zero goals. Zero assists. Tonight, Ademola Lookman gets another chance to end that record — with a place in the Champions League final in Budapest at stake.
Atletico Madrid travel to the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday night for the second leg of their UEFA Champions League semi-final against Arsenal, with the tie perfectly balanced at 1-1 after a tense first leg in Madrid. For Lookman, it is the biggest night of his career — and a chance to finally break his Arsenal duck.
The Super Eagles winger has never scored or assisted against his former employers across all six previous meetings. That number includes two painful near-misses in the first leg at the Metropolitano just six days ago.
So Close in Madrid
In the first leg on April 29, Lookman was involved in the thick of Atletico’s best moments without getting his name on the scoresheet. He tested David Raya with a shot in the 53rd minute, only to see the Arsenal goalkeeper push it away. Then, in the 74th minute, a golden chance arrived — Lookman found himself through on goal, eight yards out, and shot straight at Raya again.
Arsenal’s official match report noted that a “great opportunity” fell Lookman’s way in those moments, and the UEFA Technical Observer group rated Antoine Griezmann as the Player of the Match largely because of his consistency in those same periods where Lookman’s final touch let him down. It was a first leg where Atletico dominated the second half but could not find the breakthrough from open play.
His UCL Numbers This Season
Lookman has been a genuine threat in this season’s Champions League. He has contributed two goals and two assists across seven matches for Atletico, operating predominantly from the right side of their 4-4-2 shape under Diego Simeone.
His involvement in Atletico’s route to the semi-final has been consistent rather than spectacular — the kind of contribution that wins tie over multiple legs, not just in individual flashpoints. But at the Emirates tonight, Simeone will need more than involvement. He will need Lookman to be decisive. Fans backing the Super Eagles star in tonight’s thriller can grab the Bet9ja YOHAIG promo code before the 8pm kickoff.
What the First Leg Told Us
The 1-1 draw at the Metropolitano was settled by two penalties. Viktor Gyokeres converted for Arsenal just before half-time after a foul in the box. Julian Alvarez responded in the 56th minute, drilling his penalty into the top-left corner after a Ben White handball was spotted by VAR.
Arsenal had an apparent third penalty overturned late on after a VAR review, in a game that finished finely balanced. The first leg was a tactical battle — tight, physical, and decided by set-piece moments rather than open play. The Emirates atmosphere on Tuesday night is expected to change that dynamic considerably.
Arsenal’s Home Fortress
Arsenal’s record at the Emirates in this Champions League campaign has been formidable. They are dangerous from set pieces, press relentlessly from the front, and have the attacking width through Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli to exploit any space Atletico leave on the counter.
Atletico, for their part, have made a career of exactly this kind of game under Simeone. Their back four of Llorente, Pubill, Hancko, and Ruggeri has been disciplined all season, and Lookman’s ability to run in behind on the break is precisely the weapon Simeone will look to exploit if Arsenal chase the game. Those wanting to stake on both sides’ attacking threat can find the latest odds at bet9japromotioncode.com.ng ahead of kickoff.
Budapest Is the Prize
The winner of tonight’s tie will go on to meet either Paris Saint-Germain or Bayern Munich in the Champions League final, scheduled for May 30 in Budapest. For Lookman, a Nigerian who grew up in Wandsworth, south London — just a few miles from the Emirates — the opportunity could not be more personal.
He left Arsenal’s academy as a teenager. He has spent the years since proving himself in the Premier League, the Bundesliga, and now in Europe’s biggest competition with Atletico. A goal at the Emirates in a Champions League semi-final second leg would be the statement of his career. There is no better stage, and no better opponent, to finally end that six-game scoreless streak. Supporters tracking his progress all the way to Budapest can get started with this Bet9ja sign-up bonus for new users ahead of the final.
📌 Did You Know?
- Ademola Lookman grew up in Wandsworth, south London, and joined Charlton Athletic’s academy before being signed by Everton. He never played for Arsenal’s first team, but his journey from south London to this Champions League semi-final — at the Emirates, against Arsenal — is one of the more remarkable personal storylines of this season’s competition.
- Lookman scored a hat-trick for Atalanta in the 2024 UEFA Europa League final against Bayer Leverkusen in Dublin, making him only the second player ever to score a hat-trick in a European final. The first was Justo Tejada, who scored three for Real Madrid in the 1956 European Cup final — 68 years before Lookman’s moment in Dublin.
- Lookman has represented Nigeria at senior level since switching his international allegiance from England. He was part of the Super Eagles squad that reached the final of AFCON 2023 in Ivory Coast, where Nigeria lost 2-1 to the host nation. His performances at that tournament were among the best of any Nigerian player in recent AFCON history.
- Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid have never won a UEFA Champions League title, despite reaching two finals — in 2014 and 2016 — both of which they lost to Real Madrid. Should Atletico progress past Arsenal and win the Budapest final, it would be the defining achievement of Simeone’s extraordinary 15-year tenure at the club.
- Arsenal have never won the UEFA Champions League. Their only Champions League final appearance came in 2006, when they lost 2-1 to Barcelona in Paris despite leading at half-time through a Robert Pires goal before Arsene Wenger’s side were reduced to ten men following Jens Lehmann’s red card. Reaching Budapest would be their first final in 20 years.
- Viktor Gyokeres, who scored the opening penalty for Arsenal in the first leg, has been one of the most prolific strikers in European football in 2025/26. His signing from Sporting CP in the summer of 2025 transformed Arsenal’s attack and is widely credited with taking Mikel Arteta’s side to a level of threat that had been missing from their previous two near-miss seasons.
- The 2026 Champions League final in Budapest will be held at the Puskás Aréna, a 67,000-capacity stadium named after legendary Hungarian forward Ferenc Puskas. Puskas himself played in European Cup finals for Real Madrid in the 1960s — the same competition that Lookman, Griezmann, Saka, and Gyokeres are now fighting to reach over six decades later.
