Arsenal was stunned by a very tactically astute FC Porto in the first leg of the Champions League round of 16 first leg in Portugal this evening.
The Gunners were full of confidence ahead of the game against the Portuguese giants as they had scored 11 goals in their previous two matches.
But Porto is in the knockout stage of the UCL for a reason and showed it as they defended resolutely against the Gunners who had the bulk of the possession.
The Portuguese side could have opened the scoring on the 21st minute when Galeno’s shot rattled the crossbar and he put the rebound wide of the post.
Arsenal continued to search for an opening, but the Porto defence led by Pepe was unmovable and defended everything that came at them.
Tellingly, Arsenal had no shots on target in the entire match while Porto had two, one of which would become the winning goal as Galeno scored a Goal of the Season contender four minutes into added time to stun Arsenal.
This was a tough day at the office for the Gunners, but Porto was tactically very aware of the danger they faced from Arsenal who will have to work much harder to win at the Emirates.
It is only half time in the tie and we can rescue it if we prepare and play well in the second leg at the Emirates.
How can we go a whole match and not even have a shot on target against Porto? We always seem to have this in us and that’s a major difference between us and the likes of City. How disappointing made the second leg so much harder, if they score first will be a major challenge. With all that said I believe we will win the home leg and progress.
A very disappointing result for me personally. But you see this coach called Arteta, he just has his own problem upstairs… I personally feel Havertz & Martinelli should have been subted for either Nelson or Smith rowe… Imagine no shot on target the entire 90mins
Everytime Martinelli touch the ball he would lose it and still wasn’t substituted, Arteta might has fell asleep during the game or he drew blank in nervousness. Despite winning big in recent matches our flaw still remain, that is we cannot score in the team which play with tight spaces. I guess coming game with Newcastle going to be similar one. Time after time we have proven we can’t penetrate tightly organized team and we still have no answer for it.
Exactly, I felt Martinelli was the one that should have been substituted so as to try something else from that left side by putting Trossard there
Games are individual, you can’t just prototype your substitution to always be that it’s this so-so person that goes out
Arteta’s tactical substitutions never involve Saka, Martinelli or Kai been substituted so we practically don’t have a Plan B tactic
Your right how could he remove Trossard and leave the inefficient kai havertz, even the useless goalkeeper raya is to blame by being of the line
The problem was the midfield not Martineli ,it was too weak or wrongly arranged to combat Porto’s technique,
IMO, Havertz should have led the lines, for long balls and attracting defenders,
I’ve said it many times, Trossard needs to replace Odegaard in some matches,
The best of Rice is in Box to box not DM, imagine how he would have stretched Porto if he had the license to roam,
Well, let’s hope we unleash at the Emirates, South Americans are gifted in football, let’s show them we are too.
I expected Havertz to lead the line, it’s obvious south Americans are gifted, they’ll stretch us, with Havertz infront we would have kept there defence busy,
I just pray we score more goals and concede none,
We are back to calculations.
That was awful. I really hope that this performance doesn’t follow us home for Saturday.
Thankfully away goal rule has been eliminated otherwise we would have required 2 goal lead to progress in reverse fixture
Hi Vz
How was the away goal rule used by the way?
Away goal rule gives you the lead if it the second leg game ends up with a total aggregate score draw.
For instance, if we win Porto 2 – 1 at the Emirates which makes the aggregate over two legs 2 – 2, Porto would qualify because they have an away goal at the Emirates.
But currently, if we win 2 – 1 at the Emirates it will lead to extra time and penalties.
Hopefully we win by two goals or more without Porto scoring any goal.
That’s how the away goal rule has always worked. Vz is suggesting that “the away goal rule has been eliminated”, whatever that means.
Well fine by me, given we are just a goal down. We do the damage at our ground. Let’s focus on Newcastle next. COYG!!!
it is only one and we didn’t lose any players so that is the silver lining. Hopefully a different ref next time as well.
@vamos
👍🏾
Well the team didn’t play entirely bad, but a bit of lack of experience showed in players and their coach Arteta,
the players should have been aware that it’s not over in UCL until the whistle goes. The coach should have made defensive substitution at extra minutes and take a point.
I wonder why Jorginho didn’t start the game considering his experience? While Havertz takes a false9 Trossard shouldnt top9 in a game of such magnitude.
Arsenal still has all to play for in second leg and we can still qualify.
I keep getting told psychology in relation to previous campaigns has zero affect on current performance…yet another perfect example of it tonight.
Even though it’s a new team, the boys had that added pressure of playing a seasoned CL team like Porto. Much bigger club than Arsenal on the European stage.
The historical pressure of knowing we haven’t won a CL last 16 tie for something like 14 years clearly weighed heavily. Everyone within the club knows how poor we’ve been in the past in the CL, with MA even referencing it in his pre match press conference. History does play a part!
I love MA, but he continues to fail in Europe unfortunately. Tie isn’t over yet, and only goal in it, so I still have some confidence, but let’s not forget in all of MA’s European campaigns, we’ve had the 2nd leg at home, and got knocked out every single time.
For Jen
Psychology definitely has a part to play in principle.
Today I did not think it did. Instead, the manager’s inexperience had a part to play. IMO, I felt he needed to freshen it up for tonight’s game. Substitutions were late and in game changes were required. I felt we needed to use Nketiah and Nelson earlier as subs as both Trossard and Martinelli were off colour.
Let us just hope the original starting 11 are ready for Sat against Newcastle.
Good points in your post. Arteta has, I hope,learned a lesson from how the game went and his role in it
For SueP
I know all AFC fans are hurting but it was a heck of a finish by Galeno.
I really hope AFC are ready for Newcastle and get 3 points as I can remember the pain after the match away against them with the questionable goal which I thought crossed the line for the cross and Gabriel was pushed.
IGL
I have such mixed emotions from last night and can’t settle on what exactly caused the problems as so many issues surfaced. Jen does have a point as you alluded to.
I felt the team at all levels lacked the required experience of European football and it showed. My guess is that Jorginho wasn’t fully fit to take on the majority of the match and that left Havertz. Rice – although a winner did so at a much lower level. Jesus and OZ had top level experience and were unavailable, leaving a young team and a manager with not enough background
The bench was also pretty thin too. Others have said EN and Nelson should have been given a chance which is fair enough. ESR it appears is only just fit again and the rest were pretty much there for gaining the European atmosphere
I’m not trying to make excuses for what was a dismal night against what one poster described as a wily opponent.
Like you, I hope we can pick ourselves up for Saturday evening
White was at fault for being out of position too many times and too lazy to get back in shape defensively from his inversion fullback role. He gave no support going forward for Saka and left all the defensive duties to Rice when defending. He either is s–t at the new inversion role or he is carrying an injury. He was at fault for Rices yellow card as he should have been the one receiving the back pass, he was also at fault for their goal, because he went missing out of position which gave them all the space in the world to take an unchanged shot at goal. Get rid of White and invest in a much needed right back that has energy to attack and defend. He gives Saka no support what so ever. Not sure what he brings to Arsenal.
Ah!! I missed this kind of comments having left JA for a while now.
“Get rid of white” he says
Knee jerk!
Typical Arsenal fans – Last 3 matches White inverted role works so well. Many fans praised him claiming he is back to his best, some even said we no longer need Zenc as Kiwior is strong defensively and White thriving in the inverted role.
Today typically the whole team goes missing including Saliba, Saka,Ode and worse of them all Martinelli whose misplaced pass in the last minute lead to the goal BUT suddenly all blame is on WHITE who should now be sold – c’mon??
I don’t think we could have played much worse. Absolutely nothing worked and some of our players, looked. And it has to be said, out of their depth. We couldn’t have got a much better draw. Not scoring an away goal, could come back and bite us in the bum. From the team to the manager, very naive.
Totally agree, Reggie. Not one shot on target. Tonight reminded me of how poor we were before our recent good run. Let’s hope things improve on Saturday!
Reggie, away goals don’t count anymore we just have to win by 2 clear goals. We should manage that at the Emirates.
Andrew, you are so right. We haven’t been in the CL for so long, i had forgotten they had changed it. Thank you for putting me right. I can sleep now.
Actually I had the same feeling as you except my son put me straight about the change prior to my post. It has been a long time for us!!
Theres 90 minutes left to play. No need to panic
i’m somehow worried with the recurring failures of Arteta for not winning anything in the knockout stages, though we still have 90+ minutes to play.One substitution in 94minutes means what??is this how we survive to be arsenal fans?I pity myself.
MA is obviously not in touch with reality here.
He needed to put fresh legs in for a numbers of reasons
1. hold on to the result
2.preserve players for the Newcastle game
3. replace simply ineffective players ex. Martinelli who has been a shadow of last years and Saka who looks exhausted.
Unfortunately it is process and we are learning the hard way. What we may also find out that some of us thought Porto was a given.
Not yet and frankly this is a team that can organize well and hit you on the counter.
Very dangerous when you need 2 goals to progress.
MA needs to rotate. We will run players tot he ground in the most important part of the season .
BTW i have to say Raya’s positioning is horrible
7-8 yards out with a player having space to fire a shot is criminal. Another Mudryk mistake
@CFA#7
Raya may be partly to blame but there were a catalogue of errors prior. Martinelli trying a fancy pass in the dying seconds of the game followed by a poor attempt to control by Odegaard and then the positioning of the right side DR and BW before Raya’s possible positioning.
I agree with your earlier post and I have posted the same thing in my reply to Jen about freshening things up.
And dare I say it, poor from Rice backing off.
And dare I say it Saliba, White, Martinelli, Kiwior, Trossard and Haverz looked awful all game.
It would have been easier to name a player who had a good game Reggie
You’re not wrong SueP!
Sue, I thought Odergaard, Saka, Rice and Gabriel put a shift in and at least give it a good go.
Purely for the fun of it – which category did you put Raya in?
Not good, not bad. I do think he had a small part in letting the goal in. His position was suspect. It wasn’t a worldy goal. It was just on target.
I think Raya was more than partly to blame, his starting position was off when the shot came in. He shouldn’t be getting beat from that far out with a shot that wasn’t still rising! The last few minutes of the game he could have controlled the game a bit more and calmed it down but instead tried to set off quick counters that failed. All he had to do was play like Pickford for the last couple of minutes and take the sting out the game, as their crowd was lifting with every ball we lost. He lacks big game experience and it showed. Hopefully the team has learned a lesson tonight and go into the final leg firing on all four cylinders, boosted with some street football hustle and dark arts to boot. The way we lost today in the last few seconds should be all the motivation they need for a statement win back at the Emirates, it’s time to show Europe that we are not turning up, just to make up the numbers. This loss deserves a reaction. Let’s go, 2nd leg, come to our yard, where WE are the BIG DOG!! Come on Arsenal ♥️🤍
Yup. The team as a whole needed to take the result. You’re away from home in the dying minutes and not playing well. At the very least you don’t concede and give the ball away cheaply. They know better too and will be very disappointed. Raya just doesn’t make saves in general so not shocked that went in. We only get clean sheets when we limit the opposition to 1-2 shots on goal the entire match .
We have to wait 5 seasons to see him put in a man of the match performance
Now we need MA to read the post and follow thru
😃😃😃
Which he always does, I’m certain.
At times Porto played a very high backline which a team like Liverpool would have used to rip them to shreds. Havertz and Martinelli had no business finishing that game when Nketiah and Nelson were fit and on the bench. Heck Smith R. could have also offered more penetration. The entire second half of the game was very naive from MA and the team. The goal just added insult to injury. Hoping for a better match on Saturday.
100% I agree with what Jen has said above. In short History is the best teacher.
Interesting that some claim we were in complete control of the game. If that’s your definition of control, I hope you never get behind the wheel of a car. Holding possession and being in control of a game are 2 very different things, I thought you learnt that in u9 footy. Surely if you are in control you get a point at least?
First team to pressure our time on the ball in quite a while and look what happens in the midfield, all fluidity and flow disappeared instantly. For those that can only see 5 games back in their memory…this is the exact reason we need a proper box2box midfielder to transition from back to front in games like this.
The question on Arsenal has never been, “can they roll teams over and smash them on a good day”…..no, the question on our club has always been, “when things start to get genuinely tough can they overcome?
That goal was not a wordlie….at all, I mean it almost bounced before hitting the net even.
Still the second leg to come which I’m sure we’ll be better, I’m confident we’ll still beat them but for now we need to prepare and focus on the Newcastle game and forget about this for now. Good luck to the manager and the boys!!
@PJ-SA
RealTalk. Next put it in ALL CAPS, for those in the cheap seats…Jus sayin
The moral to this story, is that Arteta needs to bring up the LEVELS when it comes to playing in EUROPEAN FOOTBALL COMPETITIONS. Unfortunately he doesn’t have the ability (FULL STOP). There was naivety shown, and displayed all round from Arteta and the players throughout the entire match. FC PORTO are not Nottingham Forest, Crystal Palace, West Ham or, a Burnley side. FC PORTO have SOME FORM OF EUROPEAN PEDIGREE when it comes to playing in EUROPEAN COMPETITION. FC PORTO did their diligent HOMEWORK on this ARSENAL side,,,, unfortunately MIKEL ARTETA is still in his BEDROOM doing his HOMEWORK. That is what happens when you hand in your homework late,,, you fall behind in class. There was not ONE ARSENAL PLAYER that stood out in the ENTIRE MATCH. That has to come down to the MANAGER. JORGINIO should have started the match before Havertz. JORGINIO was simply signed
for his experience in shoring things up in the midfield when it comes to BIG MATCHES. Why wasn’t he in the starting line-up??? I am absolutely appalled and tired of people on this site making feeble excuses for MIKEL ARTETA,,,,, “HE’S ONLY LEARNING,,,, HE’S ONLY A YOUNG MANAGER “. Guess what folks???? Right now in this POINT OF TIME , FC PORTO played a central defender the same age as MIKEL ARTETA. Alot of pundits are pointing out that fact. It doesn’t look good considering. People seem to support MIKEL ARTETA before they support, ” THE ARSENAL “. I find that quite simply very strange indeed. If the attitude was to play the match out for a scoreless draw, well the whole tactical plan failed. What is ARTETA’S plan of attack for the 2nd leg of this CUP TIE????. He certainly doesn’t make life easy for himself. I just hope he gets it right for the 2nd legged tie at the Emirates
Let’s watch out for the return leg before hitting out at the manager as you so crave.
👍pjennings, unfortunately a club the size of Arsenal is inappropriate for a manager to have their first position and thus have to learn on the job from day one.
pjennings, I know you are or have been a pro goalkeeper and a keeper coach now But you comments about MA are nothing short of a scandalous misreading of how top class a manager he is.
You are speaking like a juvenile novice instead of the middle aged experienced man you are.
I an shocked to read such nonsense , frankly!
Unlike you Mister Fox, I have never wished an Arsenal Manager ill health like you did towards Arsene Wenger a few years ago. And you call yourself a REALIST. That must be the JOKE OF THE CENTURY. They often say, “A person who has to keep reminding one of how educated they are, and have to big themselves up all the time the way you do of yourself,,,, usually means you have an INFERIOR COMPLEX PROBLEM, or other LACKING PROBLEMS”. If I have an opinion, I’ll have and I’ll make an opinion. If you don’t like it, well TOUGH COOKIES. I been in the game long enough, been associated with many players, and many COACHES/MANAGERS at EUROPEAN club level and INTERNATIONAL level. If I don’t like Mikel Arteta’s style of Management, well that’s my provocative. And if I happen to change my mind of MikelArteta, you’ll be the first to know. Because, one is entitled to change their opinion. Until four days ago, we (Japan) were headed to play North Korea tomorrow. That match has been changed to Saudi Arabia for safety reasons. I would have loved to of shouted you a ONE WAY plane ticket to North Korea. You would well and truly be firmly in your element in such a country of Dictatorship. You never like it when someone has a different opinion to yours. You also seem to BULLY people on this site,,, whether it’s their opinion that you don’t like,,,or whether it’s their GRAMMAR,,, and you’ve got to BIG NOTE yourself and correct them. There is a MEDICAL TERM for people like you,,,, and it’s not called REALISM
I can clearly see I hit a nerve, as truth otten does,to invoke all that torrent of unpleasant juvenile type bile
And from a football experienced man such as yourself too! I am glad I NEVER WORKED WITH YOU and I reckon many others who have done would think likewise, to judge by your silly immature post. And hostile attitude!
Who but a deeply unpleasant man would wish a one way ticket to “North Korea” of all places, on anyone!
So we have a bad day and that means Arteta does not have the ability according to you.
I’m afraid the way you come out lambasting and deriding the manager and any who support him is childish and lacks credibility. It seems that whenever we lose a match you come out with these rather “shouty” comments which lack substance.
There is some rationale in having Jorginho start games against certain types of opposition. However, YOU have not really provided any sound rationale for why he should have started this game except that it was a “big game”. You have also not provided any insights into what Porto actually did well and what we did wrong except for rather nebulous claims about “homework”.
A more sensible assessment would include the challenges of how to overcome a mid block setup such as Porto’s and how these may have been overcome by tweaks to the system and possibly different personnel.
Unfortunately, we get ridiculous rants from people such as you who claim that they have been involved in football for decades and have nothing constructive to say.
Raya’s shortcoming exposed. This Galeno guy should have put two past him. Thank the woodwork, however we still have the chance if MA push Martin forward and add grit to our midfield. Maybe get Partey fit for the second leg. We can make it
How can you say that the incredible Porto miss or even the goal were in any way Raya’s fault???
Even T Henry said it was
The goalkeeper positioning for that is ridiculous
He has a tendency to do that aand got beat by Mudryk VS Chelsea and almost gave up a goal last game vs Burnley because he is too far ahead
Pat A depressing load of nonsense has been posted claiming Raya was at fault for their goal.
NO HE WAS NOT .
He was perfectly well postioned and should have been PRECISELY where he was.
Most on JA know I am not a fan of RAYA being chosen in place of RAMSDALE.
BUT FAIR IS FAIR AND TRUTH IS TRUTH AND WHAT SO MANY ARE SAYING ABOUT RAYA BEING AT FAULT IS NEITHER TRUE, NOR FAIR!!
Porto were well up for it and Arsenal did what they always do in Europe, underwhelm 🙄 Too many players thought they just needed to show up and that would be enough, no shots on target and at the back Raya costing us with a poor clearance, hope I’m wrong but I can see a repeat of sporting Lisbon from last season, Porto will get a draw in London and dump Arteta’s Arsenal out of Europe, inexcusable if that happens.
I do agree with you, David about our underwhelming performance. So many just went walk about last night. I hope you’re wrong too but I do feel we are still very much in it still. My only concern is that if Porto do defend well like they did last night, I can’t see us breaking them down. This has been our problem against well organised teams who don’t give Saka and Martinelli time or space. I think we all got a little carried away with recent results against teams that didn’t organise well against us.
It’s halftime and we are one nil down. Bring on the second half, COYG.
It’s not going to be as easy in the 2nd leg as some people are saying on here. Yes we should win but Porto are an experienced side in Europe and if we think they overdid the theatricals like throwing themselves to the ground every time we went near them they will be doing it even more with a 1-0 lead to protect. They will also be ultra defensive and we know we have trouble breaking down teams like that. Having said all that if we can’t beat Porto over 2 legs then we don’t deserve to progress in the competition.
That’s the worry for me GunneRay, we can’t seem to break down well organised sides who set up to frustrate our creative players, we need an early goal to get the crowd roaring and then hopefully we’ll steam roller them, the longer it stays 0-0 the more I can see us running out of ideas, big pressure on Arteta if we go out to this lot, what a bad look for him if he gets done in Europe by Portuguese teams two years in a row.
A very off night for the players and Arteta. Concerning that NO ONE had answers or did anything to turn the game.
“Possession without purpose” is something I and others have said before. Not the first time or opponent we have seen this, and STILL no answer or adjustment from players or Arteta.
Possession does not equate with “control” my friends, some teams are content letting you have the ball because it plays into their tactics.
Porto clearly cared little about our possession, but focused to stop our creativity and shots on target.
A learning experience, but wow are we lacking in ANY European competition.
0 shots in 90 min with the preferred 1st team. Oh my god
Porto 1-0 Arsenal.
Post Mortem!
👉On the balance of play, a draw would have been a fair result, but it wasn’t to be, so we learn from this & move on to the next one.
👉 In a regular league season u have to be the best(read most consistent) over a gruelling season to win the league, & that’s why i agree with the school of thought that believes u can win competitions like the UCL without necessarily being the best that year. A bit of luck here and there, an unexpected fillip & u could be hoisting the big jug.
However, not putting in the needed graft, but relying on luck to win (because it is a knockout competition where u might not necessarily be the best but can still win), would ultimately lead u nowhere. Make no mistakes, it is still a very difficult competition to win.
There’s a reason we haven’t won it yet, despite our standing in global football.
👉 Possession in harmless areas, without any sort of penetration will not win u a football match. Porto occupied the spaces we usually thrive in, closed us down repeatedly & limited us to sideways passing.
We ended up with ZERO shots on target, & for a team that has been scoring goals for fun in recent times, ZERO shots on target last night should be a very instructive stat.
They obviously studied this Arsenal team, did their homework on us, & when it was crunch time yesterday, they passed in flying colours.
👉 When the draws were originally made several months ago, i mentioned that we had to be careful so as not to get sucker punched. I’m a believer in the concept of never winning matches on paper. Once the requisite graft is not applied on matchday, an apple could suddenly begin to taste like neem.
How do u brag about waiting to meet(and beat) the juggernaut that is Real Madrid in the final, when u haven’t even crossed Porto in the knockout stage, to get into the quarters.
Many discountenanced Porto, as if they were just there waiting to be trashed home & away, while we march on to crush Madrid in the final.
Coming from fans of a team that has been away from the big time for seven years & one that hasn’t tasted the quarters for 14years, that is quite simply stratospheric braggadocio.
Funny logic indeed!
👉 Now that the unfortunate has happened i’m sure everyone will calm down a bit & understand that this is a team that is still growing & not act like we’re the Harlem globetrotters every single week.
Odegaard has always spoken this season about taking it one game at a time & not getting too far ahead of ourselves, while Arteta has kept on harping on humility and the essence of remaining grounded every week.
I hope some of us take these lessons from those directly involved.
👉 We have an awful UCL record & sometimes in competitions like this, the shadow of history tends to loom large & we need to be careful, if we desire to correct that narrative this time around. It takes one solid season to change the course of history, afterall!
👉This is still a very young & largely inexperienced team(players & coaches) like i always say & i’ll cut them some slack. Arteta took over Arsenal as his first coaching gig & the youngest manager in the league. Carlos Cuesta his assistant is just 28 years old, while the other one is just 31.They’ll keep learning from their experiences & keep making incremental progress till they eventually get it right. It is at this point in time that the veterans in the team like Jorginho are needed to guide the younger players through.
👉 My major concern from last night was the timing of the goal.
A loss to 94th minute goal(basically the last kick of the match) can be quite difficult to get over.
I hope it doesn’t affect us in our game against Newcastle.
👉 I’m glad it was just the first leg & while the defeat was hard to take, it wasn’t a fatal blow. We have always risen from adversity this season & i believe we can do it again in a few weeks.
If we make the necessary improvements upon last night we should have enough to give Porto an uncomfortable night in the return leg at the Emirates & progress to the last eight for the first time in over a decade. That in itself should be enough motivation.
👉 Lastly, despite the result, it was a beautiful experience being able to watch the team i love so passionately being back in the big time.
Just listening to the UCL anthem gave me goosebumps.
We’ve worked so hard to get here, & i’ll enjoy every moment of it.
COYG!
Some good especially the possession part.
Even Concecao said that MA and Pep think that possession is the only way to win matches and it is not!!!
In fact the surprising fact is as someone else mentioned that Portos highline was an invitation to
playing more directly and behind but of course MA
wants this to look pretty. Any other manager would have scored 3 goals with the pace of Martinelli and Saka. We are all learning and hope MA is learning faster.