Bring your energy, bring your voice and do your best for the penalty shootout please David Raya. What saved Mikel Arteta’s team here was the heroism of the Arsenal goalkeeper, rather than the instinct and electricity of their attacking play. Porto disappointed and they did it: Pepe’s superb finishing touch sent Porto into extra time and a penalty shoot-out. However, Arsenal survived. On the balance of the game, the team that probably has a chance of winning the Champions League has managed to get through but Arsenal will need to be much better and, more importantly, smarter if they are to be a contender.
Arsenal will worry about that later. For now, there is the first quarter-final to celebrate in 14 years. However, this point should not distract attention. “We are learning every day,” Arteta said afterwards. After all, this is his first Champions League season, as it is for most of his squad. Arsenal had been warned in the first leg but fell into the same trap. “We need to be a bit smarter,” Declan Rice admitted after Arsenal’s 1-0 defeat at Porto. “You have to be ready for these types of games,” Arteta said before the return. But Arsenal were neither knowledgeable nor prepared. They won the conflict, but despite all the promises and promises, Porto won the war of the dark arts once again.
Arsenal better learn their lesson for the second time. Although Arteta’s side have brushed aside teams to get ahead in the title race, Porto’s commitment to the fundamentals of domestic work has gone well beyond levels usually allowed in the Premier League. This situation was allowed to occur because referee Clement Turpin showed more yellow cards to the two coaches and the coaching staff than to the players on the field (3-3, aet).
But Emirates also witnessed a masterclass; Pepe is 41 years old and has done very well being Pepe at this point. Arsenal had started well enough, the Emirates alive with Arteta’s scream ringing through the stands and booming onto the pitch. Arsenal scored a superb equaliser, which came after a clever and subtle change in the build-up play, with Ben White drifting into the area for the first time and Martin Odegaard heading even further. Odegaard spent most of the night leading Arsenal one level above, and Leandro Trossard equalized. However, Arsenal failed to gain momentum.
Porto did not allow this. “And we are grateful to them,” Arteta reflected. “It was very difficult, very organized.” As in the first leg, Porto shortened the clock and wasted far more minutes than were added at the end of both halves; A standard minute at 45 and a paltry three minutes at 90. Both were wrong, but Porto’s methods of finding stoppages were at least creative. An overhead kick from Evanilson stopped the Arsenal attack after it landed on his back and remained on the ground. Wendell, who did an excellent job of tracking Bukayo Saka, winced after taking a blow to the face. He was next to the ball.
At the center of this, of course, was Pepe, peerless in his craft: reassuringly timeless and tenacious, still always in the spotlight seven years on from playing an almost caricatured villainous role for Real Madrid. Portugal. Even though he is a grey-haired veteran, he still manages to carry out this action. Between the constant fighting of the Porto back four and the often heroic defensive actions at the back there was the other side, whether cunning or otherwise: he managed to evade the slightest poke with his knee behind Kai Havertz. As Odegaard turned in the penalty area, Odegaard easily tackled Havertz before heading into the empty net, denying Arsenal a second goal midway through the second half.
Sergio Conceicao hopped and bounced along the touchline – he would be deployed alongside Porto manager Arteta and other words would be spoken after the final whistle – but he had trained his team to be organized and compact. They spent around 10 minutes defending various set-piece positions in the warm-up and then spent the game nullifying what had become the obvious strength of Arteta’s side during their winning streak. Despite all their movements in the penalty area, the crowd at the far post, and the Arsenal forwards being in an offside position, Porto did not bite. Arsenal were barely allowed to make first contact due to quick throws from Saka, Rice or Odegaard.
Porto acted smartly: Arsenal became the team that could win a match in 20 minutes with the goals they scored. Porto have faced them in more than 220 matches and have only been defeated once. However, Arsenal have progressed and they will likely face opposition of a different quality in the quarter-finals; It is unlikely that they will encounter such a deep and determined low block again, now it is in the hands of teams such as Manchester City, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich. But Arsenal are learning. “We haven’t done this before,” Arteta smiled. Even if it nearly cost them, at least there was an innocence there.