Arsenal’s bitterly disappointing 1-0 defeat against Atletico Madrid on Thursday evening has left departing boss Arsene Wenger ‘very sad’.

Wenger’s dream of a perfect ending to his ‘love story’ with Arsenal ended in disappointment after Diego Costa scored the only goal of the night in the second leg of the Europa League semi-final on a raucous evening at the Estadio Metropolitano – to send his side through to the final 2-1 on aggregate.

The result puts paid to Wenger’s last hope of bowing out of the North London giants with silverware while also confirming his final match will be in Yorkshire against Huddersfield Town a week on Sunday.

Speaking after the game a dejected Wenger said: “Look, I am like the team, very sad and very disappointed. Even very frustrated, as well, because when you go out of a competition and you had the performances in 180 minutes that we had, it very difficult to take.

“But as well for the club there is now some time to think about what to do for next season. I think there are some good ingredients in our team and they will bounce back. These players have quality and with the right additions in the summer, the team will compete next year.” Analysing the match which saw a disappointing performance from an Arsenal side that could simply not break down Diego Simeone’s excellent defence.

Wenger was gracious in defeat but his pain was all to evident.

He said: “I think it was a very intense game between two team who gave absolutely everything. I would say the team who won tonight is Atletico Madrid.

“Congratulations to them, good luck in the final and the winner of tonight’s game is the clear favourite to win the competition.

“We missed something in the final third because we had plenty of opportunities. You look at the number of chances we created in the two games, the least you can say is that we can be very frustrated.

“They were situations where we could have been very dangerous. But overall they are a clever side who defend very well.”

The Frenchman looked back on the first leg when Atleti were down to ten men with his side squandering the numerical advantage as well as a number of chances kept out by the impressive Jon Oblak – who had a far quieter night in the Spanish capital.

Wenger added: “In the first game, the tie should be over and in the second game in the first-half, we had plenty of opportunities when we missed something always in the final ball. Even in the second-half, too.

“They are a team that defends well. I believe as well we were a bit unlucky on a few times.”