Former Celtic manager Neil Lennon does not believe Arsenal deserved to lose their game against FC Porto tonight because the Gunners did most things right.
Everyone knew FC Porto would be tricky opponents to face, especially in Portugal, and they lived up to expectations, especially at the back.
This limited Arsenal and it was a game that could easily be won by a mistake or a wonder goal.
Galeno scored from a superb effort to hand the Portuguese side a first-leg advantage deep into added time.
However, Lennon does not think there is anything to criticise Arsenal for because the Gunners had a good game.
He also does not believe the game is over yet and expects Arsenal to turn it around with a victory at the Emirates.
He tells the BBC:
“I don’t think Arsenal did a lot wrong and I don’t think 1-0 will be enough for Porto going to the Emirates.
“You have to credit Porto, they had an excellent defensive structure, worked really hard, Arsenal matched them in those areas to be fair.
“At 0-0 there is always that potential for a deflection or a wonder goal like we’ve seen tonight. It was a wonder strike from Galeno.”
Just Arsenal Opinion
Porto deserves credit for keeping our attackers at bay, and they worked really hard to achieve this over the 90 minutes.
However, the tie is far from over, and we will face them at the Emirates prepared with the lessons we got from this loss.
Of course the game isn’t over yet Einstein, but we certainly didn’t do everything right, otherwise we wouldn’t have lost!!
How much did he get paid for that load of BS?
Why we pipo always complain when we lose a match.. football is like that…we learn from those mistakes…come second leg..we will kill them
The porto’s drama in all the set pieces was boring,and the ref looked like he was always carried away by the porto fc players act,hopefully we will get back at them well.
Certainly not a good game at all. We could not penetrate the compacted Porto setup. Not a single shot on goal says it all. Just hoping that Partey, Jesus and Zinchenko will be fit and ready for the return match.
As FC Porto vs Arsenal Ucl match last 16 first leg march has been played last night.
And Arsenal have narrowly lost the match by 1-0 score-line.
Lesson MUST had been learned and SHOULD be learned and BE learned by the Gunners in the match going forward.
So that on the 12th of March next match, when the 2nd leg match will be played at the Emirates Stadium.
Arteta and the Gunners would have done the needful for Arsenal. By using the lesson they learnt from their 1st leg defeat. And make the necessary adjustments to the Gunners game. That will see them win the 2nd leg match handsomely with clear goals margin to qualify for the quarterfinals. And qualified for it unfailingly.
Meanwhile, let Arteta and the Gunners start focusing seriously on the next Arsenal’s Epl match at home against the Magipies to beat them. And beat them very well in the match as a pay back. But not allow their disappointment of losing to FC Porto by a lone goal last night in the Ucl distract them from beating Newcastle this weekend.
Of course Arsenal can go through if they play at their best, but it is an IF as they may be drained not only mentally but physically.
I would question the use of the squad is important in order to keep players fresh. Only 1 substitute used by Arsenal compared to 4 by Porto giving them fresh legs. To be fair they needed to win to try to hold on at the Emirates and play on break.
BUt what is Arteta going to do in the line up against Newcastle now he has a physically & potentially mentally tired team by letting in a poor last minute goal (good strike but poor all round from a defensive point point of view) . Is he going to play players like Smith Rowe etc who he hasn’t wanted to be in the starting line up? Let’s hope players come back from injury, otherwise I hope it isn’t going to start to unravel?
I really hope it’s not the same lineup. He has to make some changes. Ideally if Jesus is ready to come back that’d be a big boost and I’d put him back in the XI. If it’s the same XI I also see trouble ahead.
It wasn’t a good game. If it ended 0-0 it wouldve been an acceptable away result though. What happened at the end though and all those bad decisions was basically us blinking first in terms of panicking and feeling like we needed to win the game within 90 minutes.