Arsenal vs FC Porto match report
Mikel Arteta and his Arsenal squad travelled to Estadio do Dragao in Portugal last night to face off against FC Porto in a match where we walked away bitterly disappointed when a wonder goal went into the net in the dying minutes of added time. A hard loss for Arteta and his squad and leaves us with plenty to do in the second game at The Emirates in 3 weeks’ time. Here’s a run down of everything that happened.
Arsenal started the game from the get-go looking a bit shaky and didn’t come looking ready to go like we’ve got so used to seeing from this squad recently. The ball kept going from end to end, but Arsenal couldn’t seem to break Porto down and although we had a lot of the ball, we just weren’t creating chances for ourselves. Declan Rice was booked after a minute of play after some miscommunication with Saka and was set to play the game out on an early yellow card.
Porto were playing to their strengths and were dominating the midfield, putting in tough challenges and were playing a very physical game, which we all should have expected from the Portuguese side. Porto came incredibly close to scoring after 20 minutes when a shot was smashed towards goal by Galeno but hit the left side of the post, then ricocheted back towards him, but he sent the shot just wide from about 5 yards out, with Arsenal lucky to not be behind.
Arsenal were getting plenty of corners in the first half but just couldn’t produce any strong chances, with headers going wide of the mark from both Havertz and Gabriel and both teams walked down the tunnel with scores level at half time.
The second half wasn’t much better for Arsenal with Porto defending well and playing well through the centre of the pitch. Trossard did have a chance just before the 60-minute mark but sent the ball flying over the goal. Both sides began to get a bit more physical, and the ref began to hand out yellow cards left, right and centre.
Arteta made a change in the 74th minute and brough Jorginho on for Trossard, pushing Havertz up to centre forward and giving our midfield a bit more stability. Arsenal won a free kick a few minutes into extra time and Gabriel managed to get a head to the ball but it went over the bar.
In the 4th minute of extra time, disaster struck when we gave away our possession and Porto looked to pounce with Galeno firing a rocket towards goal from outside of the box, looping over the head of Raya and going into the top corner of the net to make it 1-0 and win the game for the Portuguese club and leaving Arsenal wondering where it all went wrong.
A tough loss but we look onto the next game on home turf where hopefully we can get back to our best.
What did you think of the game, Gooners?
Daisy Mae
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Mikel should’ve made changes sooner. That entire left side was all out of sorts. The goal is down to multiple mistakes but mainly Martinelli’s inexperience with making such a ridiculous pass last minute. Seconds away from securing a 0-0 result away from home in a 2 legged tie. Just take the draw, especially when he knows that pass is a risky one.
Even though the immediate focus is Newcastle on Saturday at 9 pm, for Arsenal to beat Porto in the return leg,if possible,it will be good for Partey to start alongside Rice(because of their shooting prowess and their ability to interchange each other’s position easily), as the Gunners need to take a lot of surprise shots from outside the 18-yard box.Arsenal also needs to target that old man(Pepe) at Porto’s defence line.Hence,Trossard(best) on the left and Harvetz as striker on that day.
The fans also have a big role to play on that day to get the atmosphere rocking.
Luckily,we have a lot of home matches between now and then, starting with Newcastle on Saturday.
They are all games Arsenal has to win, to build confidence before facing off with Porto again.
Else,Arteta’s bad run in European competitions will continue…
Martinelli as substitute when they tire out.
This performance is only worse than the performance against Fulham at Craven Cottage last December.
We played without energy against a Porto team that was there for the taking.
What surprised and irked me most was the lack of creative variety in our set-piece play. We had so many corners and free kicks, but they were all taken in the same stale fashion. For a team that is reputed to be the most efficient with set pieces in the EPL, yesterday’s performance on that score was very disappointing.
Anyway, we look forward to the second leg when, hopefully, things would be put right.
Meanwhile attention and focus return to the small matter of the EPL clash with Newcastle on Saturday night. I can bet that Eddie Howe would have been watching last night’s game and will most likely deploy similar tactics at the Emirates i two days’ time.
Arteta and co., do not say you were not warned!
COYG!!!
I can see folks moving mad already, just relax and watch the team bounce back like they never fell on Saturday night. and please note, Porto are in for some serious beating when we host them, an incident they won’t be able to explain despite giving their all.
Well Vamos, that was alot of fan said last season after our 2-1 defeat in Lisbon. We all knew how it turned out.
Vamos, don’t underrate FC Porto, who live for Europe; after all Porto has won 2 European Cups; how many has Arsenal won?
Notwithstanding, you wouldn’t walk across the road to watch them play such dire football, which Arsenal and Arteta have to overcome!
Hmm,
Worst case scenario for us?
Chelsea and Pochettino win the Carabou cup, after their indifferent season and
Arsenal and Arteta win NO trophies after a very good season.
I would say no chance of the above, but the football gods are fickle