Porto (0) 1 Arsenal (0) 0

Champions League, Round of Sixteen, First Leg

Estádio do Dragão, Via Futebol Clube do Porto, 4350-415 Porto, Portugal

Wednesday, 21st February 2024. Kick-off time: 8.00pm

(4-3-3) David Raya; Ben White, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhães, Jakob Kiwior; Martin Ødegaard (c), Declan Rice, Kai Havertz; Bukayo Saka, Leandro Trossard, Gabriel Martinelli.

Substitutes: Aaron Ramsdale, Emile Smith-Rowe, Eddie Nketiah, Cédric Soares, (Jorge Luiz Frello Filho) Jorginho, Fábio Vieira, Reiss Nelson, Mohamed Elneny, Karl Hein, Ethan Nwaneri, James Sweet, Ayden Heaven.

Yellow Cards: Declan Rice, Jakob Kiwior, Kai Havertz

Arsenal Possession Percentage: 65%

Referee: Serdar Gözübüyük (Netherlands)

Assistant Referees: Erwin Zeinstra (Netherlands), Johan Balder (Netherlands)

Fourth Official: Joey Kooij (Netherlands)

UEFA Referee Observer: Hugh Dallas (Scotland)

UEFA VAR Team in Geneva: VAR Dennis Higler (Netherlands); AVAR Pol van Boekel (Netherlands)

Attendance: 49,111

Our midfielder Thomas Partey has finally returned to training after four months out of action following a thigh injury, whilst Fábio Vieira is close to a comeback after undergoing groin surgery in November 2023. However, Gabriel Jesus, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Takehiro Tomiyasu still remain doubtful after missing Saturday’s 5-0 win at Turf Moor. Interestingly enough, the last occasion that we managed to get past the last sixteen in the Champions League was when we defeated Porto 6-2 on aggregate back in the 2009-10 campaign, with Nicklas Bendtner scoring a hat-trick at the Emirates. Let us hope that history repeats itself in Portugal tonight!

The home side started the proceedings here tonight, and within two minutes, Declan Rice was booked for a silly foul on Galeno, and although we had managed to keep possession very well, the yellow card was regrettable. Gabriel Martinelli tried to flick the ball through into the left channel for someone to run onto, but the ageing Pepe was on hand to clear the ball for Porto. In the main, we have control in the early stages of the match, and already our captain is leading by example with clever play both on and off the ball. There was a concerning moment which saw David Raya running back furiously into his goal after kicking the ball out of play, which the home side desperately tried to capitalise on, but our defence stood firm and cleared the ball. Just after Jakob Kiwior robbed Francisco Conceicao of the ball in our penalty area, our hearts were in our mouths when a shot from close range courtesy of Galeno bounced off the woodwork and he quickly got on the end of the second chance and incredibly, he just hit the ball wide of the post, which was an incredible let-off for us. Bukayo Saka swung in a beautiful corner from the right, but goalie Diogo Costa did really well to leap high and catch the ball above his head to immediately halt any threat from our forwards. Our passing wass exceptionally crisp tonight, and our possession was a sight to behold, but we really needed to start scoring some goals. A cross from the right courtesy of Bukayo Saka bounced off the top of the crossbar from the byeline, but the linesman had already raised the flag for offside. A shot by Nico González flew miles over David Raya’s crossbar from thirty yards, and a few minutes later, Kai Havertz was unlucky not to score, when a Bukayo Saka corner from the right found the head of our striker, but his attempt went into the side netting. We continued the pressure on Porto right into injury time, but the first half finished goalless. 

The second half started well, with both sides continuing the fierce competition that permeated the previous forty-five minutes. The game quietened down and started to level out with both sides desperately trying to find a way through each other’s defences. Just after Francisco Conceicao received a well-deserved yellow card for almost tearing the shirt off Gabriel Martinelli, a superb Martin Ødegaard shot from outside the penalty area struck Leandro Trossard and bounced back into play. Jakob Kiwior received a yellow card for bringing down Francisco Conceicao (after he nutmegged our man) on the edge of the penalty area, and thankfully the resulting free-kick went nowhere; also a few minutes later Kai Havertz received a booking when he accidentally caught Silvestre Varela with his elbow. Porto then started to put our defence under immense pressure, but fortunately our boys stood firm. Galeno tried to go around the outside of William Saliba down the left wing, but fortunately our man was not fooled by any of his tricks and stylishly robbed the Porto man of the ball. The match started to get quite dogged out there, with silly fouls being committed by both teams, with no real decent chances being created. Jakub Kiwior hit a beautiful ball over the top for Kai Havertz to run on to, but goalie Diogo Costa got to the ball first. Jorginho replaced Leandro Trossard after seventy-three minutes, and despite fresh legs on the pitch, the match started to look to be a stalemate. David Raya picked an excellent ball out of the air, and he quickly rolled the ball out to try and get things moving, before the home side started to make yet more substitutions. With five minutes of the game remaining, Bukayo Saka slotted a through ball to the feet of Kai Havertz, but he was intercepted and the ball went off for a corner to us, which was taken care of by the Porto defence. During the four minutes injury time period, despite some solid play, the home side scored a fantastic goal via the right foot of Galeno, which literally flew past the outstretched right hand of David Raya in the last minutes of the game, sadly.

Despite sixty-five percent possession, we had no shots on target at all, and overall it was an extremely disappointing evening for us. Despite that obvious sucker punch in the ninety-fourth minute, we did not do an awful lot of things wrong with our general play, and we can still turn this around in the return leg at the Emirates on 12th March, and in the cold light of day, one goal is not going to be enough for Porto to be confident enough to take this tie. All to play for, chaps. 

Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as this season is going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. Our next match: Newcastle United at the Emirates on Saturday 24th February at 8.00pm (Premier League). Be there, if you can. Victoria Concordia Crescit.

Steve

Too Dearly Loved To Be Forgotten: Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris 1930-1962 by Steve Ingless (Rangemore Publications, ISBN 978-1-5272-0135-4) is now available on Amazon