Late Galeno strike sinks lacklustre Arsenal
MAGIC: Porto's Galeno, left, scores the late, late goal during the Champions League round of 16 tie. Pic: Luis Vieira
A below-par performance from Arsenal saw them dramatically lose 1-0 on their return to the Champions League Round of 16 away to FC Porto.
A 94th minute winner from Galeno saw the Portuguese side edge the Gunners after both sides had missed glorious chances to assert themselves in this encounter heading into the second leg at the Emirates.
Defeat for Arsenal ends their five-match winning streak, as they returned to the Champions League with a whimper.
Returning to the last 16 of Europe’s premier club competition for the first time in seven years, Mikel Arteta’s side arrived in Portugal in a rich vein of form, with the Gunners boss refusing to be drawn on his side’s inexperience at this level.
In this round of the Champions League for the fifteenth time, the Gunners were looking to not add to their record nine defeats at this stage.
It could not have been a more disruptive opening couple of minutes for the away side, with a concerning lack of concentration and control being shown from the usually imperious away side.
Declan Rice was the unlucky recipient of a yellow card only two minutes in after he fouled Galeno following a sloppy William Saliba pass. It was not a stellar affair from either side in the opening exchanges, with Arsenal rarely allowed much time on the ball from Porto’s aggressive block.
In the 21st minute, Porto should have gone ahead.
A well-worked move down the right-hand side led to Galeno nipping in front of Gunners defender Gabriel, with the Brazilian’s strike smashing against the left-hand post.
To the relief of the away side, the ball rebounded directly back to the winger to blast wide of the opposite post to the disbelief of their supporters.
It was a testament to how well the home side had played in the first period that Arsenal only had their first shot on goal in the 32nd minute, courtesy of Leandro Trossard, but the Belgian could only blast his effort over the bar.
After returning from the midseason winter break in destructive form with five wins and 21 goals scored in the process, the Gunners looked a shadow of themselves in the first half.
Nothing summed up their disjointed first period more than in the 40th minute when Francisco Conceicao picked up the ball after Gabriel Martinelli’s heavy touch, then proceeded to drag Gabriel out of position before Pepe fired directly into the fortunate hands of David Raya.
Porto goalkeeper Diogo Costa called for Arsenal to show why they were the favourites in this tie during his pre-match press conference, however the opening 45 minutes far from showed what the Premier League outfit were about.
No shots on target in that time made for grim reading in what was a tame attacking performance.
Arteta sent his side out early for the second period, a sign of how unsatisfied the Spaniard was with what he had seen from his team. That clearly lit a spark in Arsenal’s play as they started to impose themselves onto the home side.
Another chance went begging for the Gunners in the 57th minute, as a well-played set-piece from Rice found Trossard unmarked at the back post, but once again the winger could only fire his shot into the stands.
Much like the first half, the fiery start to the second period was submerged by the stop-start of proceedings from referee Serdar Gözübüyük in a match concocted of half chances.
For all the missed opportunities in front of goal, Porto should have been ahead, with the nonchalant atmosphere from the home fans seemingly giving the Dragons that extra source of energy.
In the 66th minute, Pepe spun Kai Havertz on the edge of the visitors’ box, before firing a low driven cross into the path of Evanilson, but the forward’s effort was diverted away by Gabriel.
The Brazilian then headed over Rice’s inviting ball from an injury-time set piece as another chance went begging for Arteta’s men.
The main source of attacking activity continued to be in the form of half chances, with the tempo of the game still at a low intensity.
It offered some rapport to Porto, who had exercised plenty of attacking flair to open up the Gunners, but much like their visitors, lacked any real killing instincts.
However, with mere seconds of the match remaining, pandemonium as the hosts broke the deadlock.
It coincided with a plethora of Arsenal mistakes, first from Gabriel then Raya, as his scuffed clearance found Galeno, with the Brazilian curling a wonderful effort into the right corner to seal a famous win for the Portuguese side.
For Arsenal, defeat ensures a record-extending tenth loss in the Round of 16.
Diogo Costa 7; João Mário 6, Pepe 7, Otávio 6, Wendell (Eustaquio, 90’) 6; Alan Varela 7, Nico González (Jaime 80’) 6;
Galeno 8, Pepê 7, Conceição (Borges, 85’) 6; Evanilson (Martinez, 85’) 6.
Ramos, Cardoso, Grujic, Sanchez, Namaso, Franco, Baro, Ze Pedro.
Raya 5; White 5, Saliba 5, Gabriel 4, Kiwior 5; Odegaard 6, Rice 5, Havertz 6; Saka 6, Trossard (Jorginho, 74’) 5, Martinelli 6.
Ramsdale, Hein, Cedric, Sweet, Heaven, Elneny, Smith Rowe, Vieira, Nelson, Nwaneri.
Serdar Gözübüyük 4
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