The first leg of the UEFA Champions League semifinals between Atlético Madrid and Arsenal kicks off Wednesday at 3 p.m. Eastern at the Civitas Metropolitano in Madrid. Dutch referee Danny Makkelie has the whistle. The other semifinal first leg was played Tuesday in Paris, where PSG hosted Bayern Munich at the Parc des Princes with Italian referee Daniele Orsato in charge. Both fixtures are televised in the United States on Paramount Plus and CBS Sports Network, with Spanish-language coverage on TUDN and ViX.
Arsenal arrives in Madrid as the highest-scoring side remaining in the competition, with 22 goals through 12 knockout matches. Bukayo Saka leads the squad with 7 Champions League goals across the campaign, and Martin Ødegaard has 9 assists. Manager Mikel Arteta will likely deploy his preferred 4-3-3 with Declan Rice anchoring midfield, William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhães at center back, and Gabriel Martinelli on the left wing. Bukayo Saka was a question mark in the lead-up but trained fully Tuesday and is expected to start. The away team's biggest tactical challenge is Atlético's deep defensive block and the high-altitude pressure that the Madrid crowd brings on European nights.
Atlético Madrid manager Diego Simeone returns to the semifinals for the first time since 2017. The squad has been built around Antoine Griezmann's late-career playmaking and Julián Álvarez's pressing and finishing in the central striker role. Álvarez has 8 Champions League goals this season after his summer 2024 transfer from Manchester City. The defensive pairing of José María Giménez and Robin Le Normand has held opponents to 0.78 expected goals per match across the knockout rounds. Goalkeeper Jan Oblak missed three quarter-final minutes against Inter Milan after a bruised shoulder but is fit for Wednesday.
The PSG versus Bayern tie has different storylines. Tuesday's first leg in Paris paired Luis Enrique's possession-heavy front line with Vincent Kompany's Bayern Munich, who has rebuilt around Harry Kane, Jamal Musiala, and the offseason additions of Florian Wirtz from Leverkusen and Frenkie de Jong from Barcelona. Kane has scored 9 Champions League goals this season and 41 across all competitions, putting him in line with his career-best campaign. Wirtz is the squad's leading playmaker with 14 chances created in the knockout rounds. PSG counter with Ousmane Dembélé as the central forward in Enrique's false-nine setup, with Bradley Barcola and 19-year-old Senny Mayulu on the wings.
The second legs are scheduled for Tuesday, May 5, at the Allianz Arena in Munich for Bayern versus PSG, and Wednesday, May 6, at Emirates Stadium in London for Arsenal versus Atlético Madrid. Both kick off at 3 p.m. Eastern. The Champions League final is scheduled for Saturday, May 30, at the Allianz Arena in Munich, the same venue hosting the second-leg semifinal. Tickets for the final were distributed to the four semifinalist clubs in fixed allocations of 18,500 per qualifying side, with the remaining tickets going to UEFA partners and a public ballot that closed in March.
For U.S. broadcast and digital, Paramount Plus has exclusive English-language streaming rights through the 2027 final. CBS Sports' multi-game windows on Tuesday and Wednesday have averaged 487,000 concurrent viewers across the knockout phase, up 28 percent from last year and 41 percent from two years ago. The Spanish-language audience on TUDN has been driven by Atlético Madrid's deep run, with Tuesday's quarter-final against Inter drawing 612,000 viewers in the U.S. Hispanic market.
Champions League prize money reached new highs this season. The base award for reaching the semifinals is 15.5 million euros per club, with additional payouts of 3.5 million euros for advancing to the final and 6.5 million euros for winning the title. Performance bonuses tied to group-phase results add another 9 to 14 million euros per club, depending on wins and draws across the eight group games under the new league phase format. Arsenal entered the knockout rounds with the second-highest performance bonus payout in the competition behind Bayern Munich.
For U.S. fans, the conversation extends beyond results to player development. Christian Pulisic, who plays his club football at AC Milan, was eliminated in the round of 16. Folarin Balogun is on loan at Olympique Marseille and reached the quarter-finals before exit. Arsenal's American minority owners, the Kroenke Sports family, would see meaningful brand value from a final appearance in Munich. Major League Soccer attendance has been pulling on Champions League viewership data to argue for a deeper integration between U.S. broadcast partners and the European calendar, with Apple TV's MLS Season Pass renewing for a third year against Paramount's UEFA package.