LONDON — Arsenal drew 0-0 with Sporting at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday to advance to the Champions League semi-finals for the second consecutive season. Kai Havertz's goal in the first leg proved enough to carry the club through the two-legged tie.

The result made Arsenal the first club in its 140-year history to reach the Champions League semi-finals in back-to-back seasons. The team kept a clean sheet in the second leg despite playing without Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard, Jurrien Timber and Riccardo Calafiori, all of whom were unavailable due to injury. Declan Rice, who was made captain for the match following a vote by his teammates, played despite being unwell.

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta praised his squad's achievement after the match. "I know the effort, the commitment that they put in. There's a lot of work behind it. We've done something that has never been done in the history of our club in 140 years, so that tells you the difficulty of that," he said. Arteta also said: "There is a reason why we are the only English team in the competition, because this league and this schedule takes the hell out of you and it's very difficult to do what we've done."

The match produced few clear-cut opportunities for either side. Sporting's Geny Catamo hit the post just before half-time, and substitute João Simões fired wide in stoppage time. Arsenal managed one shot on target across the 90 minutes. Noni Madueke limped off with a knee injury during the match, adding to the club's injury concerns.

The combined expected goals for the second leg was 0.93 — 0.64 for Arsenal and 0.29 for Sporting — the lowest of any Champions League game in the 2025-26 season. That figure was also the lowest combined expected goals in any Champions League quarter-final since Barcelona faced Manchester United in April 2019, when the total was 0.68.

Arsenal have now kept a clean sheet in eight of their 12 Champions League games this season, more than any other team in the competition. The club's broader form has been uneven: Arsenal have won one of their past five matches in all competitions, scoring three goals in that span. The second leg against Sporting was the club's 54th game of the season.

"We are not perfect, we need to improve things, that's for sure, we recognise that. But there's value in what these players have done because they deserve it," Arteta added. Arsenal sit six points clear in the Premier League, having played one more game than Manchester City.