Arsenal will face Sporting Lisbon tomorrow for the first time in over a year.
The previous occasion witnessed Mikel Arteta’s side knocked out by the current Portuguese champions in the Europa League round of 16 in March 2023.
Following a tricky 2-2 tussle at the Estadio Jode Alvalade, The Gunners geared up with the target of knocking out Lisbon back at The Emirates in the second-leg which didn’t quite go to plan.
Amidst almost 60,000 pulsating fans Granit Xhaka stormed The North Londoner’s into the lead after nearly 20 minutes, slotting in Gabriel Martinelli’s rebounded shot into the back of the net.
Despite Arsenal being handed the opportunity to wrap up the tie for the rest of the match they failed to capitalise on it. After the hour mark Pedro Goncalves caught Aaron Ramsdale off his line momentarily chipping the Englishman impressively from just inside of Arsenal’s half in front of the halfway line.
After 90 minutes Arsenal and Sporting Lisbon were tied level on aggregate at 3-3 with an extra half an hour to go for either team to net the golden goal.
Unfortunately the attacking might of Martin Odegaard, Martinelli and Bukayo Saka struggled to overturn the tie in Arsenals favour in the final half an hour, forcing the encounter to penalties.
With Martinelli needing to score to keep Arsenal in the tie his effort was saved by Antonio Adan then cub captain of Lisbon. Arsenal had missed out on a spot in the Europa League quarter-finals!
After the match Arteta proclaimed Martinelli was disappointed with his critical penalty shootout miss but was insistent he wouldn’t be defined by his error: ”He will react well, he’s obviously disappointed today, we all are, when you take those decision that possibility is always there.“
Before the Spaniard further stated: ”He will learn from it like Bukayo did in the past and move on.”
If Arsenal can for once and for all take down Lisbon away from home tomorrow, it will be the first time since we beat them over six years ago in 2018 in the Europa League Group Stage 1-0. This is going to be a seriously tough game!
Liam Harding
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The scenarios are actually different now. I think a draw would be fair considering we are playing away and Sporting are in good form. And just like Arsenal, they are yet to lose at home this UCL..
I wish though that VGyokeres should score against us. It could be a wake up call for Arteta and the board to prioritize buying a good prolific CF in the summer. But not that we should lose, that would make Arsenal getting to quarter final precarious based on our group table.
During the last International break, Viktor Gyokeres was interviewed at length of various Premier League clubs and their interests in him. He basically doesn’t want to go back to England to play. Especially when other European clubs with European Champions League pedigree are chasing him for his services. You certainly can’t blame the guy. Why in Gods name would Viktor Gyokeres come to Arsenal???? Why???? Alot of Arsenal fans are in LaLa Land if they think he will come to Arsenal. As much as I would love to see a STRIKER at Arsenal, I ain’t going to hold my breath. Arteta could have brought in a striker ages ago after Aubameyang was shafted out of the club. But he didn’t. I do think that the Kronkes are happy with a top four finish for money purposes only,,,, and Arteta is happy to go with the flow to keep his job. The Arsenal Fanbase is so gullible. They think by getting into the Champions League, Arsenal will attract WORLD CLASS PLAYERS. ABSOLUTE BULLSHIT. You only attract TOP GRADE PLAYERS when you win MAJOR TROPHIES. And ARSENAL have not done that in TWENTY YEARS. I’ve supported this club since 1977. I’ve seen the GOOD and I’ve seen the f##king UGLY side of this club. And there has been more UGLY than GOOD
•***I do think that the Kronkes are happy with a top four finish for money purposes only,,,, and Arteta is happy to go with the flow to keep his job.***
Where is the evidence for your claim?
***The Arsenal Fanbase is so gullible. They think by getting into the Champions League, Arsenal will attract WORLD CLASS PLAYERS. ABSOLUTE BULLSHIT. You only attract TOP GRADE PLAYERS when you win MAJOR TROPHIES.***
Right now we can attract any player that Man City, Liverpool, Man United and Chelsea can attract.
I think Madrid is the only club as always that gets the Creme De La Crème and all the leftover players are left for the rest of us..
“I do think that the Kronkes are happy with a top four finish for money purposes only…”. I don’t agree with that. I think they want silverware as well.
I start from the premise that KSE is looking to sell Arsenal at a time they deem they will make as big a profit from the sale as possible. In order to do that they need the club to have as high a profile within the EPL and Europe as it can. I think that’s why silverware is important.
When people think of the likes of, say, City, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich etc. they don’t fixate on their balance sheets so much as on their trophy cabinets. And winning trophies (particularly the EPL and CL) not only raises the club’s profile but brings in more sponsorship and other money which in turn increases its financial “attractiveness”. It’s one reason why Arsenal still lags behind other “Big 6” EPL clubs in income from commercial deals – others secured better terms, often on the strength of trophy success. As always, sponsors like to be associated with winners.
P/S I’ve supported Arsenal since 1969 – the League Cup Final vs (Third Division) Swindon was my first game – and believe me, that was “bad”.
@Bertie:
You seem to get it when it comes to the Kroenke’s wanting to sell. I have been making somewhat similar arguments in recent years . I always thought that just finishing in the Top 4 is not enough to attract the amount of money the Kroenkes would be willing to part ways with Arsenal. Just making the CL places gets you a mid level sum of money (about £1.5 billion to about £2 billion) if you decide to sell. And with the amount of money that they bought and invested in the club then that £2 billion sum from any buyer is not good enough.
But if we won a few major trophies then that number would jump from between £3 billion to about £4 billion if anyone wanted to buy the club off them. Winning and completely for major trophies is what will increase our Valuation / worth as a club.
But with all that said. I have changed my mind on the notion that The Kroenke’s would want to sell Arsenal in the near future. I have looked back from when they first bought their shares off David Dein. They continually refused to sell to Alisher Usmanov even if he tried to buy their shares at inflated share prices. Then some Arabs insinuating buying the club, but Stan always said he is here for the long haul. Then the Dangote guy, same answer, Kroenke said he was not interested in selling Arsenal. Then the whole Spotify guy (Daniel Ek) push to buy Arsenal. But The Kroenke’s stood firm giving the same Answer: “Arsenal FC is not for sale at any price”.
Now they have spent nearly a £Billion to strengthen the team in the last 4 years / keep assuring us that they are here for the long haul. And that they will continue to invest big each season if the manager asks.
So with all this evidence, I don’t see them selling Arsenal any time soon. There is absolutely no evidence in their history / portfolio that shows them ever selling any of their Sports franchises in North America. They just seem to be doing the opposite: Massively Investing in those franchises instead”. Same with what they are doing at Arsenal currently.
But as always, there is always a price for everything, so can never say never..
@PJennings
I have also followed footballers enough to know they are unpredictable. A player moving to another club is a function of “different parameters/factors” and not only because of trophies. Unai Emery after CIA hing Arsenal in Epl left unceremoniously but is back at Villa claiming he has unfinished business in England.
You can’t really bet on where a footballer goes when tempted with irresistible offers. If Arsenal want Gyokeres badly they know what to do
We have to look at this game in isolation. What has gone before is history, but still taking one game at a time approach, this is a very tricky tie. I would be ecstatic if we win there, but would also be happy with a draw and no injuries.
“Arsenal in Europe” has generally been a pretty sad affair. I my experience since the late 1980s. However now the team is getting that tough feel of a team that does well in Europe. Merino and Calafiori seem like players that will thrive in a Champion’s League environment.
This game, will tell us a lot about our CL chances. Sporting are not one of the elite and have just lost one of the best young managers in world football. We need to go there and win. Our form is Europe doesn’t bode well though.
This game, will tell us a lot about our CL chances. Sporting are not one of the elite and have just lost one of the best young managers in world football. We need to go there and win. Our form in Europe doesn’t bode well though.
Sporting haven’t lost a game at home for over a year when they lost to Europa league winners Atalanta, and of course a 4.1 win over Citeh was a walk in the park.
This game is going to be far from easy…
No CL game is easy but if we are going to do well in the CL, we havecto beat the “second tier” teams like Sporting. Our European form under Arteta is poor and he has to start proving he is upto the job in Europe.
Even Arteta has said, we need to make a statement against them tonight. That doesn’t mean a defeat or timid draw.