Gabriel Martinelli's late goal sealed a remarkable 2-1 away win, as Arsenal progressed to the Champions League last four with a 5-1 aggregate thrashing of Real Madrid.

Defending a 3-0 lead from the first leg at the Emirates Stadium, Mikel Arteta's side survived the first hour at a boisterous Santiago Bernabeu with little difficulty – and they should have extended their lead early on.

Bukayo Saka saw a penalty saved by Thibaut Courtois, but the Arsenal winger made amends with a 65th-minute opener, only for Vinicius Junior to pull one back from William Saliba's mistake two minutes later.

Martinelli then went racing through in stoppage time, finishing with ease to tee up a semi-final meeting with Paris Saint-Germain, after downing the reigning European champions.

Arteta's side were offered a glorious chance after 13 minutes, when referee Francois Letexier was sent by the VAR to review the touchline monitor following David Alaba's pull on Mikel Merino from a left-sided corner.

Letexier overturned his on-field call, but Courtois scrambled well to parry away after Saka opted to go for a cute dink down the middle, igniting an already rapturous home support into frenzy.

VAR came into play soon after at the other end, though this time, to overturn Letexier's on-field decision of a penalty, after Declan Rice was adjudged to have pulled back Kylian Mbappe from a Madrid free-kick.

Chances remained limited into the second half until Merino's delightful throughball sent Saka through to chip over an onrushing Courtois, with a finish befitting of a wonderful team move in the build-up.

Saliba was then caught in possession, however, allowing Vinicius to snatch possession on the edge of the area and fire into the roof of an empty net just 111 seconds later.

Unlike previous years, Vinicius' intervention could not inspire another famous European turnaround as Merino again threaded through for Martinelli to speed in behind, and slide past Courtois to seal a monumental win.

Data Debrief: Saka makes amends, Vinicius milestone goes unrewarded

Saka became the first Arsenal player to miss a penalty in the Champions League at the quarter-final stage or later, but that was the only piece of unwanted history for the visitors on Wednesday.

Indeed, Saka then became only the third different Arsenal player to both miss a penalty and score a goal in a Champions League match, after Andrey Arshavin (against Partizan Belgrade in September 2010) and Alexis Sanchez (against Bayern Munich in February 2017).

There was still time for Madrid to ignite hopes of a comeback, with Vinicius scoring his eighth Champions League goal this campaign, his most in a single season for the club (one more than last term).

That also made Vinicius the fourth different Madrid player to reach 50 goal involvements in the Champions League (after Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, and Raul).

However, Arsenal saw out the closing stages before Martinelli's brilliant late finish, as they made it four games unbeaten against Madrid in European competition (won three, drawn one).