Approximately 30 seconds, that’s all it took to pop the Emirates balloon that had refilled with the hope that something special was coming.
Forget about the Atleti goal for just a moment and you see an Arsenal performance that has long been promised but rarely delivered.
Arsenal turned up, even if they were helped by a ref not afraid to do his job.
But a moment is as long as you can forget about Griezmann’s goal, because it was so utterly heartbreaking. One poorly positioned defender, one long ball, one defender with clown shoes kicking the ball into his own face, and one more to slip.
If you asked an Arsenal fan who didn’t see the game to describe how Arsenal conceded after dominating completely, the chances are good that’s exactly how they’d describe what happened.
That was one of the most disappointing things. That it was so predictable.
All any side has to do is hoof the ball over the top of our backline, run after it and wait for one of the defenders to panic and do something stupid.
But the most disappointing thing is that this was 2018 Arsenal under Arsene Wenger at their very best, really trying to give him the send off he deserves. Now, unless they perform a miracle in Madrid, he will be leaving with a whimper rather than the bang he is due.
Sure, with Aubameyang in the line up we would have been more clinical in front of goal, probably. But when you have 28 shots and want to win this competition, you should score more than one.
After the final whistle, the overriding emotion was one of sadness. There was little anger, just a weary acceptance that it really is over.
Arsene and his team have had many chances to show they have what it takes and they’ve been found wanting repeatedly.
All they had to do was concentrate for 90 minutes, just this once, and they couldn’t manage it.
It all this sums up why Wenger has to go. This game was the personification of him in a football match.
Arsenal were sublime at times on Thursday night, flashes of what Wenger brought to the club in his first decade appearing all over Atleitico’s half.
But as the match wore on, the second decade asserted its dominance to crush those who had dared to dream one final time that this time – this time – they wouldn’t let us down.