Arsenal Wins Round Of 16 Thriller Against Porto In Penalty Shootout (Image: twitter.com/ChampionsLeague)

This time, a defiant Arsenal changed the course of history and won against a Portuguese team in a European match in the round of 16 match. Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya was the saviour, who made two big saves, for the Gunners to not to repeat last year’s Europa cup exit, which was against Sporting Lisbon, that too in a penalty shootout. Martin Odegaard, Kai Havertz, Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice have scored for Arsenal in the shootout.

Earlier, Emirates came alive when Belgian Leandro Trossard brought home the joy of a equaliser in the second leg of round of 16 match of UEFA Champions League against Porto. This happened in the tail end of the first half that saw several expeditions by Gunners to the Dragons” goal area to be denied by a confident defense. It was captain and midfield maestro Martin Odegaard set the stage for Trossard to deliver.

The Arsenal excursions were mostly denied by the defense department of Porto that has Pepe, Joao Mario, Otavio and Wendell.

Then came the second half and the game wasn”t much different than the first half, there were more yellow cards (Mikel Arteta has also got one, for his touchline antics), more Pepe, more refereeing from French Clement Turpin and some more exciting moments in which both the teams visited the enemy lands with much more vigour.

David Raya = hero for The Arsenal ❤️#UCL pic.twitter.com/AVAiGaxwfg

— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) March 12, 2024

The last ten minutes of the actual time saw more drama, especially after the introduction of Gabriel Jesus. Right after he came onto the ground, he was seen testing the patience of Porto goalkeeper Diogo Costa. Then again, within another two minutes, both Odegaad and Jesus tried to net in the ball, but with not much luck.

Then the game went on to the extra time and the first half saw two tired teams running across the ground and nothing happened. And the rest of the extra time was also not productive and the game met with the ultimate decider: penalty shootout.

In this game, there wasn”t a better team, instead both teams were equally performed well and played good football. But, there were better players in the game, especially Pepe and Otavio who paired well to stop all the calculated attack by Arteta”s men who enjoyed good possession. Porto survived several of Arsenal attack and made it sure that the well-designed attacks by the Gunners are not going inside the net.

Porto fans, who packed the visitors area was behind the visitors in every attack and also cheered them when the pragmatic defensive team denied Arsenal several occasions, did the duty of the perfect twelfth man.

Apart from Arsenal, Manchester City, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich have already booked their places in the quarter finals.