This was a night that seriously tested Arsenal’s mental strength and they passed it with flying colours.
Even though Mikel Arteta’s side were 1-0 down to Porto from the first leg, many still expected the Premier League side to progress, and that in normal time.
When Leandro Trossard opened the scoring for Arsenal in the first half, you felt that was a sign of things to come and more goals would follow suit, but it wasn’t meant to be!
Thierry Henry lauded the Belgium international for his efforts by sharing that ‘I worked with him on this type of finish’, as he told CBS Sports on Paramount+ (12/03/24 at 8:50 pm).
The former Belgium assistant coach, who worked with Leandro Trossard on the international stage, also agreed that the assist from Martin Odegaard was ‘Dennis Bergkamp-like’.
The Arsenal captain took the ball to his feet and toyed with it like he had a Playstation controller in his hand, before playing the most delicate of through balls for his on-rushing teammate, as Martin Odegaard proved to be the go-to guy again.
It needs to be remembered that, over the course of the two legs, and including extra time, this Porto side were drilled to their absolute best and they let very little through.
But not even 41-year-old Pepe could do anything about that, as it proved to be Arsenal’s only goal of the game.
Martin Odegaard’s assist for Arsenal
“It was a long ball that Arsenal played,” said Henry. “They recovered the ball and the ball went on the outside.
“We all know when this guy (Odegaard) has the ball on his left foot and Trossard, I worked with him on this type of finish. He has plenty of those.
“That’s what I was talking about, that long ball. At times, you have to be a bit direct. What I like here is what Odegaard did when the ball comes back here.
Is that Bergkamp-like? “Yes, very much so.” Agreed Henry. “The way he shifted the ball back onto his left foot, to find that little pass that went in between the leg of the player, to make sure Trossard was going to finish it and he finished it ever-so well.
On it being a Henry-like finish: “It’s a Trossard finish because, I can tell you, in training when we were playing, in the national team, he has that in his locker and we saw it with Brighton too.”
Arsenal win on penalties
It was a much tougher game than Arteta would have planned, but it’s one that would have done his team the world of good.
From Declan Rice to Bukayo Saka. There are a lot of players who are very inexperienced at this level.
But they would have taken and learnt a lot from this game because this is Champions League football proving to be as awkward as possible.
Given that Arsenal went all the way to extra time and there will be a lot of tired legs out there, it would be a sigh of relief that they aren’t in Premier League action at the weekend.