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Referee Danny Makkelie pointed to the spot, walked to a monitor, watched 13 replays of a foul he had already seen with his own eyes, and changed his mind. That is why a Champions League semifinal first leg that Arsenal controlled for long stretches and should have won in Madrid ended 1-1 at the Metropolitano, with two penalties converted and a third wrongly taken away from us in the 78th minute.

The Metropolitano was hostile from the first whistle, with toilet paper streaming down from the upper tiers before a ball had been kicked and Atletico's fans generating the kind of noise designed to make visiting players second-guess themselves on every touch. Tottenham and Barcelona have both publicly complained about pitch conditions at this stadium during earlier rounds of this season's competition, with Spurs alleging excessive watering and Flick raising concerns about the grass length with UEFA before Barcelona's quarterfinal second-leg defeat, and our own staff had lodged a formal complaint about the surface before kick-off. There is a pattern of visiting teams feeling that the Metropolitano's playing conditions are part of Simeone's tactical armoury, and while none of it is technically against the rules, all of it is calculated.

Atletico started sharply and had the better of the opening exchanges. Alvarez was at the heart of their best early work, roving around the pitch and arriving late in dangerous positions, and he forced the first real save of the night with a curling 20-yard effort that Raya pushed around the post. But we weathered that initial storm and steadily took control through patient possession and the intelligence of our midfield shape.

Declan Rice was immense throughout the half and, as it turned out, throughout the entire match. He completed 83 passes on the night, the second-most by an English midfielder in a Champions League semifinal on record behind only Michael Carrick's 99 against Schalke in April 2011, and he made the most line-breaking passes of any player on the pitch with 12. Sky Sports named him player of the match, and it was thoroughly deserved. When the game needed someone to set the tempo and keep us ticking in the middle of the park, Rice did exactly that without ever looking flustered by the occasion or the atmosphere.

That control paid off just before the break. In the 44th minute, Alvarez misdirected a header straight to Zubimendi, who exchanged a quick one-two with Odegaard before feeding Gyokeres inside the box. Hancko was the wrong side of the Swede, got both hands around him, and clumsily clattered into him from behind. Makkelie pointed to the spot without hesitation. Under intense pressure and in front of a furious Metropolitano crowd, Gyokeres blasted past Oblak to give us the lead going into the break. It was his 19th goal of the season, with only Erling Haaland and Igor Thiago having scored more for a Premier League club across all competitions this campaign.

As the players headed down the tunnel at the interval, Atletico captain Koke went over to remonstrate with the referee, and Simeone shook his hand in the direction of the officials. The sense of injustice inside the stadium was already building, and what followed in the second half would only intensify it.

Atletico came out a different side, pressing in packs and pushing us deep from the very first minutes of the second half. Simeone had made a change at the interval, withdrawing his son Giuliano Simeone and bringing on Robin Le Normand, and the shift in intensity was immediate.

The equaliser arrived on 56 minutes, and it came through a penalty of its own. Griezmann lofted a corner to the edge of the box, Llorente ran onto it and struck a volley that deflected off White's knee and onto his arm. Makkelie initially waved play on, but VAR intervened, sent him to the monitor, and a penalty was awarded because the arm was deemed to be in an unnatural position. The ball chose the path rather than White, and a deflection off a defender's own knee onto an arm in a natural running position is not a deliberate act, but Arteta conceded afterwards that UEFA have been consistent with this interpretation throughout the tournament, saying "if you are going to give a penalty for this kind of thing, you have to accept it." Alvarez stepped up and smashed the resulting penalty into the top corner with Raya rooted to the spot, his 10th Champions League goal of the campaign and one that made him the first Atletico player to reach double figures in a single season in the competition.

What followed was the most intense spell of pressure we have faced all season. Lookman forced a close-range save from Raya, and when the rebound fell perfectly for Griezmann, he tried to lob the keeper only for Gabriel to recover and produce a superb block. Minutes later, Griezmann struck the crossbar with a looping effort that had Raya beaten entirely. Atletico were hunting in waves, and the Metropolitano was deafening.

Arteta made his moves. He had already introduced Eze for Odegaard on 58 minutes, and the substitution immediately added directness and energy. Then came the triple change: Saka, Trossard, and Jesus for Madueke, Martinelli, and Gyokeres. The fresh legs swung the momentum back in our direction, we regained a foothold in the match, and that is precisely when we should have won it.

In the 78th minute, a slick passing move involving Trossard and Rice freed Saka on the right flank. He sized up the Atletico defence and played a square pass towards Eze, who was just inside the penalty area. The ball was slightly in front of him, meaning both Eze and Hancko stretched for it. Eze got there first, nudging it past Hancko's outstretched right leg, and Hancko's trailing foot then made contact with Eze's boot. Eze went down, and Makkelie, after taking a beat to assess the situation, pointed to the spot.

Then the chaos started. Hancko protested so furiously that he was booked for dissent. Atletico players surrounded the referee. And on the touchline, Simeone made the VAR gesture repeatedly with his arms before the call came from the video assistant for Makkelie to review his decision at the screen.

What happened next should concern anyone who cares about the integrity of refereeing at this level. As Makkelie walked towards the monitor, Simeone came out of his technical area and positioned himself barely five or six metres from the screen, gesturing for the referee to overturn his decision while the Dutchman was trying to watch the replays. Darren Fletcher, who was commentating for TNT Sports, noted that Simeone was "literally five yards behind the screen, bellowing at the ref, waving at the ref" and said that if there was ever a time to book a manager for trying to influence an official, it was then. Steve McManaman called the behaviour of Simeone and his assistants while the referee was reviewing the footage "atrocious." Martin Keown said the referee "buckled under the pressure" and that "Simeone orchestrates the crowd here, but he orchestrates the officials as well." Steven Gerrard said Simeone "played a big part" because "his behaviour there, he was in the referee's eyesight coming over."

After three minutes and 20 seconds at the screen, having watched 13 replays from two different camera angles, Makkelie crossed his arms and cancelled the penalty. The Metropolitano erupted. Simeone danced in delight on the touchline. Eze, who had been in conversation with Hancko during the entire review, looked incredulous.

Arteta was unequivocal afterwards, calling the decision "completely unacceptable" and saying it "changes the course of the tie." He told TNT Sports: "There is clear contact. You make the decision, you cannot overturn that decision when you have to look at it 13 times. At this level, it is completely unacceptable." Even Jamie Carragher, not exactly a card-carrying member of the Arsenal fan club, posted that these decisions are "a stain on the competition." When a referee needs 13 replays and a screaming manager in his peripheral vision to change his mind, the threshold for a "clear and obvious error" has not been met, and what you are watching is not VAR correcting a mistake but VAR being weaponised by a manager who has spent his entire career gaming officials.

The final whistle did not end the drama. As the players left the pitch, Ben White walked towards the tunnel entrance and stepped on the Atletico crest embedded in the floor. Giuliano Simeone, Diego's son, confronted him immediately. Diego Simeone then intervened, initially appearing to pull his son away before reportedly slapping White on the back twice, which sparked a heated verbal exchange that escalated into shoving before staff and players from both sides separated them.

Whether White's step on the crest was deliberate or accidental will be debated endlessly, but what is not debatable is that a 56-year-old manager chose to physically confront a player after a match, and that this is the circus Simeone has always cultivated wherever he has been. Late in the second half, Arteta had also replaced White with Cristhian Mosquera, whose dangerous late effort was parried by Oblak, and the fact that White was still at the centre of the evening's controversy even after leaving the pitch tells you everything about the kind of night it was at the Metropolitano.

The tie is level at 1-1, and we remain unbeaten in 13 consecutive Champions League matches, equalling our longest run in the competition's history set between March 2005 and April 2006. The last time we sustained a run like that, we reached the final.

We should have won this in Madrid. We will finish the job in London.