Arsenal fan group Ashburton Army raised more than £12,000 and offered to pay for their own personalised tifo with many different designs suggested to the club.
On 24 April, they posted an update saying: “As the tifo has been rejected by the club, we will refund people for it.”
BBC Sport has been told that Arsenal were unable to accept the proposal because of the short timeframe between games.
What they used was a simple large red flag featuring the club’s cannon emblem in white as the centrepiece.
This hung from the roof of the North Bank Stand, while another smaller banner was held by fans in the East Stand with the words “make it happen” printed across it – a pre-match message that Arteta had given to his players.
Those two displays were added to by fireworks and pyrotechnics, but they were far from anything out of the ordinary.
One fan posted on X: “I expected a very beautiful tifo from Arsenal only to discover this? It looks like Fifa career mode.”
Another claimed: “I think this may be the most commonly agreed worst tifo of all time given the circumstances.”
While a third said: “Arsenal turned down the fans’ tifo design request to produce this monstrosity. Champions League semi-final and this was the best they could come up with? So disappointed.”
According to former England striker Wayne Rooney, working as a TV pundit, the atmosphere at the Emirates on Tuesday was different to the Real Madrid game.
Before that match, supporters in each block of the stadium held up red and white cards above their heads.
“For Arsenal, I was a bit disappointed with how they played, disappointed with the fans as well,” Rooney told Amazon Prime.
“I thought tonight they were a bit subdued, almost like an anti-climax that they beat Real Madrid and were going to walk into the final and win the competition.”
