Arsenal (1) 1 Porto (0) 0
(Arsenal won 4-2 on penalties after extra time)
Champions League, Round of Sixteen, Second Leg
Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU
Tuesday, 12th March 2024. Kick-off time: 8.00pm
(4-3-3) David Raya; Ben White, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhães, Jakob Kiwior; Martin Ødegaard (c), Declan Rice, (Jorge Luiz Frello Filho) Jorginho; Bukayo Saka, Kai Havertz, Leandro Trossard.
Substitutes: Aaron Ramsdale, Thomas Partey, Gabriel Jesus, Emile Smith-Rowe, Eddie Nketiah, Cédric Soares, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Fábio Vieira, Reiss Nelson, Mohamed Elneny, Karl Hein, Oleksandr Zinchenko.
Scorers: Leandro Trossard (41 mins)
Yellow Cards: William Saliba, Mikel Arteta, Kai Havertz
Arsenal Possession Percentage: 58%
Referee: Clement Turpin (France)
Assistant Referees: Nicolas Danos (France), Erwan Finjean (France)
Fourth Official: Ruddy Buque (France) t
UEFA Referee Observer: Vlado Svilokos (Croatia)
UEFA VAR Team in Geneva: VAR Jerôme Brisard (France); AVAR Willy Delajod (France)
Attendance: c.60,000
For tonight’s game, David Raya is likely to return in goal after being ineligible to face his parent club Brentford at the weekend, and we will be without Gabriel Martinelli, who sustained a foot injury last week. However, Takehiro Tomiyasu remains on the substitute’s bench tonight. Obviously, it goes without saying that this evening’s game against Porto is an important must-win, having lost the first leg by a solitary goal, as we need to reach the quarter-finals of this competition for the first time since 2009-10.
The visitors kicked the match into life this evening, in this electric atmosphere. We certainly brought the game to Porto, right from the start, with the best of the early chances coming from the head of Ben White, who was unlucky not to score. Kai Havertz was penalised for leaving an elbow in as he went up for a header, and although the resulting Porto free-kick went nowhere, there were one or two early signs that Porto could be extremely dangerous on the break. Our captain won a ball out on the right wing but his cross was headed away. It was only half-cleared though, and Kai Havertz drilled it back across the penalty area before the visitors eventually cleared their lines, and then Leandro Trossard chased a ball down the line, courtesy of Declan Rice, but the veteran centre-back Pepe, came across to clear the ball. A few minutes later, Bukayo Saka easily beat Nico González and took a quick shot towards the goal, but the goalkeeper fumbled it, and Bukayo Saka won it back and Martin Ødegaard almost squeezed through the defence with a clever one-two, which went out for a corner kick.From the resulting corner, our captain shot just wide, and then Jakub Kiwior linked up with Leandro Trossard and he sent over a teasing cross for Bukayo Saka, whose header went just wide of the mark. At the other end, Evanilson hit a superb shot from twenty-five yards that was well saved by David Raya, and then after some great work out on the right, a cross from Ben White saw Pepe clear it off the goal-line, although he whacked his arm against the goalpost. Again, Bukayo Saka was cynically fouled, in which the referee did nothing, but the resulting quick free-kick went narrowly wide of the post, courtesy of Kai Havertz, whose delicate flick was unlucky. William Saliba received a yellow card for hauling down Wendell, and with just four minutes remaining of the first half, Leandro Trossard whacked the ball past the outstretched goalkeeper after our captain did some fantastic work in losing two Porto defenders before slotting the ball to our Belgian striker. A beautiful goal to draw the scores level on aggregate. Kai Havertz was sandwiched between two Porto players during injury time, but got to his feet and seemed to be okay just as the referee blew his whistle for half-time.
We started proceedings off for the second half, and the boys have forty-five minutes to win this second leg tie. However, the visitors have other ideas on that, as their play in the opening minutes of the second half has been one of possession, pass and move. Francisco Conceicao ran past Jakub Kiwior on the right and Declan Rice was forced to intercept him in the our penalty area, and it has to be said that Porto are on the front foot this half, and are more of a threat to us than they were in the previous forty five minutes. However, a few deliveries from Declan Rice were cleared by the Porto defence, and we kept the pressure up on them and Kai Havertz pulled it back to Declan Rice, whose strike was blocked by the goalie for a corner; goalkeeper Diogo Costa did well under pressure to punch away Declan Rice’s in-swinging corner, but there was a quick VAR check for a potential penalty for a high boot as Bukayo Saka came in for the rebound but it came to nothing. Martin Ødegaard got the ball into the net, but it was disallowed because Kai Havertz pulled Pepe’s shirt and all that came of it was that Mikel Arteta receiving a yellow card for his protests on the touchline. Porto broke free with three players on our two and Francisco Conceição fired a good effort towards goal, which David Raya just about stopped and Jakub Kiwior made an excellent block on the rebound before the linesman’s flag went up for offside. Kai Havertz was barged whilst in the air by Pepe, who received a yellow card, and the resulting free-kick saw William Saliba head the ball over the bar. Players were getting frustrated now, silly mistakes from both teams as the clock ran down. Gabriel Jesus replaced Jorginho with eight minutes of the match remaining, and with his first touch, he nearly scored when he ran onto a loose ball in the penalty area, but the ball hit the inside of the goalie’s leg and went off for a corner, which was adequately cleared by the Porto defence. Bukayo Saka cut inside and hit a powerful shot which the goalkeeper pushed out to the feet of our captain who hit it narrowly wide. Bukayo Saka’s corner flew straight into the goslkeeper’s arms. The visitors broke out and Declan Rice sprinted back to make a crucial sliding tackle and in doing so stopped a Porto attack. During injury time, Bukayo Saka pulled the ball back for Kai Havertz, whose shot went off a defender for a corner, that was headed wide. We had a penalty shout denied by VAR when our captain went down in the penalty area and a minute or so later, the French referee, Clement Turpin blew the whistle for the end of ninety minutes, and we are now looking forward to thirty minutes of extra time, if not penalties.
The first period of extra time got underway with the boys looking like that they need to beat Porto as soon as possible. The crowd were totally behind our boys now as we moved forward in our attempts to score, and the tension was becoming unbearable. A Martin Ødegaard free-kick was headed away, and as our pressure continued, we were looking for any slight gap in the Porto defence. Bukayo Saka just cannot get past two defenders on the right wing, but Declan Rice won it back but his pass through to Bukayo Saka was too heavy and went nowhere, and then Jakub Kiwior failed to deal with a long ball and Mehdi Taremi eventually cut inside and dangerously curled it wide. As the first period of extra time came to an end, there appears to be a lot of tired legs out there now, with no shots on goal from either side. For the second period of extra time, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Eddie Nketiah replaced Jakob Kiwior and Leandro Trossard and with just fifteen minutes of open play left before penalties, it was going to take a moment of sheer genius to win this match now. Porto won a penalty, which was plucked out of the air by David Raya, and then Eddie Nketiah flicked a ball to Bukayo Saka in the penalty area, but he took too long on it and Otavio was able to come across to block the shot from close-range, sadly. The match was going from end to end, and tired legs make silly fouls, one of which was Kai Havertz on Pepe to stop a counter-attack. Both teams now look resigned to the inevitable penalty shoot-out, as inspiration was running low, and sure enough, that was exactly what happens after one hundered and twenty minutes of football.
And so, the die is cast. Our captain scored the first one, sending the goalie the wrong way, and in return Pepe did the same to David Raya. Kai Havertz coolly slotted the ball into the bottom corner of the net, whilst David Raya amazingly saved Wendell’s penalty so well; Bukayo Saka made it 3-1 to Arsenal when he stuck his penalty away, and although David Raya dived the right way, he just could not get to the penalty struck by Marko Grujić, sadly. Declan Rice hit a perfect penalty straight down the middle and suddenly, it was all on this Porto penalty. Galeno’s strike was parried away by David Raya, diving to his left! We’re through! David Raya is our hero of the night and he has saved two spot-kicks and as a result we are in the last eight of the Champions League!
Phew! What a night! Although it was a scrappy, fractious encounter at times, it was our boys who held their nerve to go through to the quarter-finals of the Champions League. There was a lot of tension in the air tonight, and the atmosphere was absolutely cracking, but they did it, and every man played their part well, and stuck to the game plan. And it paid off! Well done 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: Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday, 31st March at 4.30pm (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
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 