{"id":319392,"date":"2026-04-16T05:35:02","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T00:05:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/?p=319392"},"modified":"2026-04-16T05:35:02","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T00:05:02","slug":"joe-cole-makes-arsenal-vs-atletico-madrid-champions-league-semi-final-prediction-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/2026\/04\/16\/joe-cole-makes-arsenal-vs-atletico-madrid-champions-league-semi-final-prediction-football\/","title":{"rendered":"Joe Cole makes Arsenal vs Atletico Madrid Champions League semi-final prediction | Football"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t\t<\/div><figcaption>Joe Cole rated Arsenal\u2019s Champions League possibilities (Picture: TNT Sports)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Joe Cole has rated Arsenal\u2019s possibilities of beating Atletico Madrid and reaching the Champions League final.<\/p>\n<p>Mikel Arteta\u2019s Premier League leaders edged out Portuguese champions Sporting 1-0 in a decent and cagey quarter-final.<\/p>\n<p>Arsenal will meet Spanish giants Atletico within the semis after Diego Simeone\u2019s side beat La Liga rivals Barcelona 3-2 on aggregate.<\/p>\n<p>Champions League holders PSG face German champions Bayern Munich in the opposite semi-final tie after wins over Liverpool and Real Madrid respectively.<\/p>\n<p>Following an excellent first-half to the season, Arsenal look like stuttering towards the finish line, winning just one in all their last five games in all competitions.<\/p>\n<p>But former England star Cole still believes Arsenal fans ought to be \u2018very confident\u2019 about their possibilities of overcoming Atletico Madrid and reaching the Champions League final.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Arsenal fans ought to be\u00a0very, very confident,\u2019 Cole said on TNT Sports. \u2018They at all times knew they were on the higher side of the draw.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t<img width=\"594\" height=\"396\" src=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2270962163.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;w=594\" class=\"article-image wp-image-27990576\" alt=\"FBL-EUR-C1-ARSENAL-SPORTING\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\">\t<\/div><figcaption>Mikel Arteta during Arsenal\u2019s clash with Sporting (Picture: Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u2018The Premier League is one\u00a0entity\u00a0but I feel they&#8217;ll turn up against Sporting and perform and get through.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018A semi-final against an Atletico Madrid team that we saw tonight, Arsenal\u00a0are\u00a0lots stronger than so many alternative areas.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018The one thing that Atletico Madrid\u00a0have\u00a0got over them is experience but I still think the double is on for Arsenal, I actually do.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t<img width=\"594\" height=\"396\" src=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2271430382.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;w=594\" class=\"article-image wp-image-27990580\" alt=\"Atletico de Madrid v FC Barcelona - UEFA Champions League 2025\/26 Quarter-Final Second Leg\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\">\t<\/div><figcaption>Atletico Madrid boss Diego Simeone (Picture: Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u2018It is going to be chaos but Arsenal can\u2019t be gentlemen in a game like that. There shall be dark arts from Atletico so Arsenal need to administer that.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Arsenal beat Sporting 1-0 in Lisbon last week courtesy of Kai Havertz\u2019s injury-time goal and that proved to be enough to send the Gunners into the semi-finals of the Champions League.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking after the victory over Sporting, Gunners boss Arteta said: \u2018It\u2019s an enormous moment. To be a part of those 4 teams is great work.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018It\u2019s an awesome night. I\u2019m very completely happy for all our people. We&#8217;re making steps that haven\u2019t been done at this club for 140 years [back-to-back Champions League semi-finals].<\/p>\n<p>\u2018You could have to earn it. You could have to undergo a number of work. Gratitude to the players.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>On Arsenal\u2019s semi-final opponents Atletico Madrid, Arteta added: \u2018I watched them yesterday \u2013 that stadium is special.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Those are the moments we would like to live together as a team straight away, so enjoy tonight. Tomorrow we are going to start to arrange for the weekend after which we are going to take into consideration that.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Arsenal\u2019s Gabriel Martinelli also discussed the semi-final tie against Atletico Madrid, telling reporters: \u2018We played them within the group stage but this shall be a very different game.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Now we have to earn the appropriate, we&#8217;ve got to do things right in the sport as well. Let\u2019s stick with it and check out to win each games.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Arsenal, sitting six points clear at the highest of the Premier League, face title rivals Manchester City in an enormous clash on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><strong>For more stories like this,\u00a0check our sport page<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Follow Metro Sport for the most recent news on <meta charset=\"utf-8\"><br \/>\n<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sportmetro\">Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Metro_Sport\">Twitter<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/metrosportuk\/\">Instagram<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"metro-more-link\"><svg><title>Arrow<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#common-right-arrow\" href=\"#common-right-arrow\"><\/use><\/svg><span class=\"mor-link\" data-track-module=\"mor-link_article\">MORE: Sporting vice-captain singles out \u2018extraordinary\u2019 Arsenal star after Champions League exit<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"metro-more-link\"><svg><title>Arrow<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#common-right-arrow\" href=\"#common-right-arrow\"><\/use><\/svg><span class=\"mor-link\" data-track-module=\"mor-link_article\">MORE: Former Chelsea and Man Utd manager Jose Mourinho lined up for Premier League job<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"metro-more-link\"><svg><title>Arrow<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#common-right-arrow\" href=\"#common-right-arrow\"><\/use><\/svg><span class=\"mor-link\" data-track-module=\"mor-link_article\">MORE: Mikel Arteta admits Arsenal star is \u2018shattered\u2019 ahead of Manchester City clash<\/span><\/p>\n<section id=\"share-buttons-bottom\" class=\"share-buttons share-buttons-bottom\"><a class=\"metro-button share-bar-comments\" data-vars-position=\"bottom\" href=\"#metro-comments-container\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t<span><svg><title>Comment now<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#social-comment\" href=\"#social-comment\"><\/use><\/svg><\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"share-bar-comments__label\">Comments<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<span><svg><title>Add Metro as a Preferred Source on Google<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#social-preferred-source\" href=\"#social-preferred-source\"><\/use><\/svg><\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"share-bar-preferred-source__label\">Add as preferred source<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/section>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Joe Cole rated Arsenal\u2019s Champions League possibilities (Picture: TNT Sports) Joe Cole has rated Arsenal\u2019s possibilities of beating Atletico Madrid and reaching the Champions League final. Mikel Arteta\u2019s Premier League leaders edged out Portuguese champions Sporting 1-0 in a decent and cagey quarter-final. Arsenal will meet Spanish giants Atletico within the semis after Diego Simeone\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":319393,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20686],"tags":[2605,15249,5941,7603,5479,2158,622,3166,3595,3000],"class_list":["post-319392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","tag-arsenal","tag-atletico","tag-champions","tag-cole","tag-football","tag-joe","tag-league","tag-madrid","tag-prediction","tag-semifinal"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319392"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":319395,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319392\/revisions\/319395"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}