Only saw extra time but a pretty rubbish effort from both. Don't think Arsenal forced a save and Porto spent 30 minutes playing for penalties. All for nothing if Arsenal win the shootout.
Arsenal capable of beating better teams than Porto. I think the nerves and inexperience got to them a little so very important for them to get that first knockout win in this competition.
Play for penalties. Keeper doesn't get close to saving one and the takers miss twice. Brilliant tactic.
Maybe a bit of nerves but it could also be that they are at the part of the season where they usually fall apart. Unconvincing against brentford and even worse tonight. Porto did play well though and kept the ball from arsenal more than lower premier league teams would. Shout out to pepe who was very good again tonight and that's amazing considering his age. The other pepe looks decent as well
What a night. I've listened to a few podcasts this season and it's been mentioned that Raya hasn't had a 'moment' yet to really endear himself to the fans. He's been part of a well oiled machine in 2024 but not 'won' a game for us as it were. Obviously after tonight he has his moment now and hopefully that relationship between him and the fans can start to develop. On the game, I thought we were a little too cautious. We've been on the pragmatic side all season in the big fixtures and by and large have done ok in them. Loved how our players kept their heads all night, not biting on Porto's nonsense or getting overly emotional with some of the refereeing decisions. I can't say the same for the fans Odegaard and Rice were sublime. Havertz was in the trenches all night just causing havoc (including a goal if he doesn't pull Pepe's shirt). Saka had his worst game in a Arsenal shirt for a long long time and I really didn't like the Zinchenko sub at the time. I'm not feeling him coming off the bench cold in a high stakes match like this. Also feel we need more pace in our attack and it has to be a priority in the summer. Martinelli is our only real genuine pace threat and we really miss him when he doesn't play. As for Porto, they are very very good at stopping us playing. Masters of the mid block, we notorously struggle with them. You can't get a groove going. They don't high press so you can't play through them and they don't park the bus either so you can't get into a rhythm of passing and moving and working the ball. They press as soon as you enter the middle third of the pitch and then recover their shape as and when they need to. Had the same problem with Lens earlier in the season. We leaned too much into our own out of possession strength too. You're at home, the crowd don't want to see the Porto goalie with studs on the ball waiting for us to press him. I know why we do it, cut off all short options and force them long to get it back but there were too many occasions where there was a lot of dead time in play. The last 16 monkey is off the clubs' back. Hopefully we can just have fun and enjoy ourselves now. If Dortmund do the business tomorrow, the competition is set for a very glamorous quarter final draw with Man City, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Arsenal, PSG and one of Inter or Atletico also there too. Now, we relax. We have time to compute and process tonight and start focusing another ****ing huge game against Man City.
The manner of the result will give a big mental lift to Arsenal for the rest of campaign (domestic & European).
I dunno, Porto not a bad side but they wouldn't have wanted extra time and penalties and might just sit in the back of their minds how hard they found it. not as if the next round will be any easier Bayern Munich Man City Real Madrid Barcelona Paris St Germain Arsenal PSV Eindhoven/Borussia Dortmund* Inter Milan/Atletico Madrid* *home advantage 2nd leg, little innit but might expect the home sides to win and in the case of Atletico overturn a 0-1 deficit (1-1 in the other). All in all the last ties to be resolved are the easier pickings (on paper) of the sides left so citeh will get one, probably Madrid the other!
