English Premier League leaders Arsenal moved to the last eight of the Champions League after the full 90 minutes, extra-time and penalties against Porto.
Leandro Trossard cancelled out Porto’s goal in the first leg on 40 minutes, after he was slotted away a wonderful assist from skipper Martin Odegaard, but we had to keep plugging away for the whole 120 minutes as our opponents dug in.
The tie ended dramatically as the gunners put away all four of the penalties, not needing a fifth as David Raya made a fine save from Galeno to guarantee a slot place in Friday’s quarter finals draw.
Mikel Arteta was full of thanks to everyone who played their part on and off the field, to ultimately end the decade long wait for Arsenal to reach another Champions League quarter-finals.
Revealing his emotions post-match, he said: “I’m so happy, I’m so proud, especially for the club. It’s been 14 years not achieving the quarter-finals of the Champions League, and that’s a long time. It shows you how difficult it is to do it.
“A big credit to the boys for what they have done today and to everybody that turned up in the stadium and from their homes, bringing that incredible energy into the stadium to help us win the game.
“It was very difficult to get constant momentum in the game, with the way they play, credit to them. We knew that that was going to be the case, we had to be really patient and emotionally controlled and wait for the moment. We were going to have moments and, in those moments, we had to put them away and we’ve done that.” said Mikel Arteta after the match as reported by www.arsenal.com
Raya’s match-winning performance is further vindication of Mikel Arteta’s decision to sign him in the summer and make the 28-year-old his No.1 goalkeeper at the expense of Aaron Ramsdale. Aside from his penalty heroics, Raya made three saves in normal time.
Arsenal now shift focus on their Premier League Title hunt when they take on Chelsea at the Emirates.
