Champions League takeaways: Arsenal stunned by Porto, Barcelona frustrated in Naples-ZoomTech News

If Arsenal and Barcelona are to progress to the quarterfinals of the 2023-24 UEFA Champions League, they each should win their subsequent match.

The Gunners will return to North London for the decisive second leg of their total-goals sequence with Porto on March 12 trailing 1-0 on combination after being shocked by the hosts’ 94th minute winner in Portugal on Wednesday:

In Italy, Barça squandered the lead Robert Lewandowski gave them on the hour mark, with Napoli striker Victor Osimhen’s seventy fifth minute equalizer leaving the 2 sides knotted at 1-1 because the groups head again to Spain subsequent month for the again half of home-and-home.

Listed below are three fast takeaways from Wednesday’s two spherical of 16 first-leg matches.

Arsenal shocked on the dying

With simply seconds remaining in a scoreless match, Arsenal regarded set to ship the sequence again to England on even phrases. Porto winger Galeno had different concepts. After lacking a pair of first rate scoring possibilities within the first half, the Brazilian made no mistake when one other alternative fell his manner deep into second half stoppage time, when he curled a stupendous shot previous Gunners backstop David Raya to win the sport and ship the gang at Estádio do Dragão dwelling glad.

For the guests, it was a brutal manner for what had been a largely uneventful night to finish. But Mikel Arteta’s workforce cannot complain an excessive amount of in regards to the consequence — not after Arsenal did not muster even one shot heading in the right direction all match. The dearth of attacking was particularly shocking contemplating that Arsenal entered the sport having scored a staggering 11 occasions in its final two Premier League video games.

The silver lining for the Gunners is that Galeno’s aim — his fifth within the Champions League this season — does not change the calculation all that a lot. Positive, a stalemate on Wednesday would’ve been preferable. However Arteta’s sport plan was clearly to restrict the hosts’ possibilities after which end Porto off on the Emirates Stadium three weeks from now.

That is nonetheless the target. The final eight remains to be effectively inside Arsenal’s attain. Had Wednesday’s match ended even, they nonetheless would’ve needed to win the second leg to advance. The duty is barely extra difficult now, however the Gunners stay the favorites to maneuver on.

They will want to supply a much better efficiency within the second leg, in fact, and getting the opener early might be key. They will even have to check Porto keeper Diogo Costa subsequent time, however there is no cause to dwell too lengthy on this one. In actual fact, Arteta’s gamers cannot overlook about Wednesday quickly sufficient.

For Barcelona, a tie that appears like a loss

Barca’s evening at Stadio Diego Armando Maradona wasn’t as fruitless as Arsenal’s Iberian jaunt, but it surely was virtually as irritating for the guests.  The Blaugrana dominated the proceedings in Naples — ending with extra of the ball and twice as many pictures because the hosts, together with a 6-1 benefit in on-target efforts. Napoli’s first did not come till the second half.

So Barcelona gave the impression to be in nice form after Lewandowski gave the guests a well-deserved 1-0 lead. At that time, a second Barça aim appeared possible. Napoli has been in horrible all season in Serie A; the Scudetto holders are languishing manner again in ninth place within the Italian prime flight standings and fired supervisor Walter Mazzarri simply 48 hours earlier than kickoff. 

However the hosts nonetheless boast one in every of Europe’s prime strikers in Osimhen. And in his first match again since representing Nigeria within the African Cup of Nations, he proved it with a strike that got here utterly in opposition to the run of play:

It was a troublesome blow for Xavi Hernandez’s aspect, which nonetheless had a golden alternative to win simply earlier than the ultimate whistle sounded. Sadly for them, İlkay Gündoğan’s last-gasp try sailed simply extensive of Napoli’s aim. Historical past is on Barça’s aspect, although: the five-time European champions progressed in all 20 of their earlier knockout-round sequence during which they received or tied the opener on enemy territory. 

Lamine Yamal units one more report

Whereas neither of Wednesday’s tilts might be remembered as classics (until maybe you are a Porto supporter), there was a chunk of historical past made within the Barcelona-Napoli contest.

At 16 years and 223 days, Barça attacker Lamine Yamal grew to become the youngest participant ever to begin a match within the knockout stage of the Champions League.

Yamal, who went 80 minutes earlier than being changed by Raphinha, is already Barcelona’s youngest-ever goalscorer, the youngest within the historical past of La Liga and the youngest to look for Barça’s senior squad since 1922.

Doug McIntyre is a soccer author for FOX Sports activities. Earlier than becoming a member of FOX Sports activities in 2021, he was a workers author with ESPN and Yahoo Sports activities and he has lined United States males’s and girls’s nationwide groups at a number of FIFA World Cups. Observe him on Twitter @ByDougMcIntyre.

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