Arsenal head to the Estadio de Dragao in Portugal this midweek as they face Porto in the last 16 of the Champions League. It is the Gunners’ first knockout game in Europe’s elite competition since they lost 10-2 on aggregate against Bayern München in February 2017.
Mikel Arteta will be hoping to turn the club’s fortunes around in the Champions League as they have never won the competition in their history but as one of the favourites in their first season back, they will be expected to make it far. They are favourites in this match, but they will have to avoid any complacency if they want to make it past Sergio Conceicao’s well-drilled Porto side.
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Be Cautious and Try to Control the Tempo Against FC Porto
One of the main differences from the Premier League to Champions League, especially within knockout away games, is the balance of the match. In most Premier League games when the Gunners face sides at the bottom of the table they will be tasked with breaking down a low block positioned in the opposition’s defensive third.
But in the Champions League teams are likely to be more proactive and former European champions, Porto, will be galvanised by their home support who will expect to be in with a chance of winning the tie when they head to London in two weeks.
If Arteta wants his team to stay calm and composed, he may think about bringing Jorginho into the side that has been unchanged in their last two league games and scored 11 goals, conceding none. If the Italian international was to be brought in then it would mean a change to the midfield dynamics would occur with one of Leandro Trossard or Kai Havertz the likeliest to drop out of the side.
On the topic of being cautious in the Champions League, both Havertz and captain Martin Odegaard echoed the same sentiment pre-game. Odegaard said: “We just want to focus on ourselves each game, keep improving every game and we will see how it goes.” Havertz added: “You have to look game-by-game, there are two games to play now.”
Carry Attacking Momentum And Be Clinical
After all the talk of Arteta’s attacker’s goalscoring deficiencies all season they have turned a corner since their January break in Dubai scoring 21 goals in five Premier League games. Bukayo Saka has scored six goals in five games and Leandro Trossard has three in three as well. This firepower will be crucial to the Gunners progressing past a Porto side who have conceded the second-fewest goals in Liga Portugal at only 16 goals conceded in 22 games.
Fabio Vieira travelled with the squad to Portugal but there will be no Gabriel Jesus, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Thomas Partey again for this match, although the north Londoners have been in fine form without him.
Arteta is ready for the tough task they will be facing in Portugal without those first-team players as he told reporters “It’s been seven years since we’ve been at the top table for these kinds of matches and 14 since we were able to go to the next stage. That’s the challenge. We are very excited to face it and to go for it with full belief.”
If the Gunners are to progress, they cannot take Porto lightly and will hope for a positive result at the Estadio de Dragao in this first last-16 tie to take back to the Emirates Stadium where they will hope to secure passage into the quarterfinals of the Champions League for the first time in 14 years.
