Whatever happens from here, this is progress for Arsenal

Cathartic penalty shootout victory takes the heat out of Arsenal’s season and makes trying to win the league feel lighter

Arsenal's David Raya, Martin Odegaard, Ben White, Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice celebrate after winning the penalty shoot-out of the UEFA Champions League Round of 16, second leg match at the Emirates Stadium, London. Picture: Zac Goodwin/PA Wire. 

In the end this was the perfect way for Arsenal to win this tie. Beating a Portuguese team on penalties. This feels like a kind of hazing ritual, some brutal rite of passage, like running up a frozen Munro with a bag full of bricks on your back just to make it more special.

For a side that has been accused, by those who like to accuse, of not being ready to win, of being callow and excitable, there was something perfectly paced about the stodginess of this Champions League last-16 second leg.