Topic: UEFA Champions League 2023/24 Season - page 438. (Read 141787 times)

Yeah, I admit that Arsenal played badly in this match they seemed to be in a deadlock and in fact there was no shot on target, I don't know why Arsenal looked different in this match or maybe they just want to draw and in the second leg Arsenal will beat their opponent. Based on the schedule we can see that most of the second leg matches will be won by the home team because in the first leg they only drew and were 1 goal behind meaning the home teams will be motivated to win, only Manchester City is in a safe place because in the first leg Manchester City won 3-1 and in the second leg Man City as the home team, it was clear there was no way for Copenhagen to win.

What I saw from the Porto vs Arsenal match was that Arsenal did not find the gaps that Porto had in the back line. Arsenal looked so confused in finding a way to penetrate Porto's defense. Arsenal were indeed able to control more of the ball in that match and Arsenal's pass accuracy ratio was also much better. But all of that is useless if Arsenal has difficulty approaching the Porto defense area.

And several mistakes made by Arsenal's midfield and back line always almost endangered their own goal. I think that mentally the Arsenal players are not really ready for the pressure of the Champions League. Because Arsenal when playing in the Premier League always looks confident. But in this match you must have noticed that the Arsenal players looked less confident. Even their midfield usually doesn't make mistakes. but in that match they did it several times. I hope their confidence returns in the second leg. Because if Arsenal could be more confident then the quality of Arsenal and Porto's game would actually be much different and Arsenal could actually be much better.

Yes, i think a draw is a fair result for both teams, obviously the two teams are not in their best form right now, neither are they playing their best football, thus this tie is going to be decided on fine margins. Having said that, the reverse fixture is in Barcelona's home, though they are not particularly strong at home this season, but they at least have the home advantage, if i am to predict the team that would progress to the QF, i'd go with Barcelona, though if they eventually qualify, i don't think they'd go past the QF stage.

I also think that way. Lol
The slumping Arsenal once again fell to the Portuguese team, giving FC Porto little chance of winning, in other words, underestimating Porto. Bad assessment, because Arsenal doesn't seem to have learned from their past mistakes with Sporting and maybe history will repeat itself. If Arteta doesn't learn from his experience against the Portuguese team, maybe Arteta will experience bad things again in the second leg. Apart from that, another interesting fact is that Arteta has never won a single European home game in the knockout stages as a manager.

Arteta must be aware that the UCL league level is very different from the League. If Arteta is smart, he will know what needs to be improved and will definitely use different tactics in the second leg. Arsenal lost 1-0 in the first leg and were still very lucky because the goal deficit was small, they still had a chance in the second leg to score at least two goals. As a fan of the EPL league, I hope that Arsenal will progress to the next round.

this was the shoot by Lewandowski and broke the deadlock. Pretty decent shoot

This was the first leg by the way. At some certain times of the match, I thought Barcelona was going to win the match without much problems, to be honest. But it actually should have been a win for Barcelona if they did not make the mistake on defense. If they could avoid them they could have a one-goal lead going into the second leg. But now there is not going to be any lead for any team.

By the way, the second leg is going to be played on the home ground of Barcelona [Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys].
So maybe Barcelona will actually have a better chance of winning. 

The results of Arsenal first leg match were really embarrassing, as you said, Arsenal dominated the game throughout the match from the start to the end, but unfortunately their attack line seemed to lose sharpness when they were in Porto defense line, never mind to scoring a one goals, but 1 shot on target their not get it in that match, isn't that quite funny considering that in several Arsenal matches in the league they were able to win with quite a big score? I think Porto defense is also not very strong because in fact they also made several mistakes, but in that match the Arsenal players seemed to lose their magic, but I think Porto was also lucky enough to be able to score 1 goal in the final minutes of the match because at least that could make them safe in the second leg with only needing to get a draw.
BTW, I don't know what Arteta was thinking in that match because throughout the match he only made 1 substitution, and what's strange is that when Arsenal looked clogget  in attack, Arteta actually pulled out Trosard and put Jorginho in the midfielder position, or actually Arteta deliberately trying to save players to face Newcastle in the league later?
Whether this is a tactic or a mistake of course we don't know.

I personally don't care about how or what Arsenal's line-up looks like because what is clear is that Arsenal suffered a big failure in this match. Even though based on statistics, the reality is that Arsenal had better ball possession and goal attempts compared to Porto, but what was worse is that Arsenal had absolutely no shots on target in that match. With bad results like that, I think it's normal for Arsenal or Arsenal fans to get ridiculed like that as you mentioned or you found on social media because after all, Arsenal failed completely in this match . Because before the match started Arsenal looked like they had a very good chance because yes, the big win with a clean sheet that Arsenal got in the Premier League, made Arsenal quite the favorite compared to Porto, but the result was very disappointing.

Last year, Arsenal were eliminated by the Portuguese team. If we see the same thing this year, I'm sure Arsenal won't want to play against Portuguese teams. The rematch will be in England. Arsenal will definitely win this match, but what I wonder is what kind of game approach Porto will be on the field that day. If Porto plays defensively, Arsenal can make more mistakes and it would be a miracle if they concede another goal and get through the round.

I see this not because Arsenal were unlucky, but because Porto's defense was so strong that Arsenal were frustrated in dismantling Porto's defense. Apart from People forget how good Porto are, this is a team that has achieved wins over Juventus, Barcelona and Chelsea in the past. So they really understand when they meet open or attacking players like Arsenal.

This match was also great to see Pepe playing at this level at the age of 41 (he turns 41 in a few days). Arsenal didn't even have a shot on target so they didn't deserve to win. I'm not sure if Arteta can take Arsenal beyond this level and turn things around at the Emirates. This is Arsenal's biggest test in the second leg, and so far in the round of 16 only Man City and PSG are the only clubs to win with a 2 goal difference.

I did not view the match between Arsenal and the porto but when I checked up in the social media, Arsenal fans were being trolled that they played 90 mins without recording a short on target. Honestly that is so ridiculous to behold. Was it that Port defence was too formidable or Arsenal forwarders were just weak.

I had checked that the line up and discovered that all the forwards played except Jesus who is injured. Saka and Marttineli were there but did nothing so serious to change the narrative. I was surprised to see Harverts at the top 9 throughout the match while other strikers like Nketiah who is more energetic was on the bench.

To be honest, I didn't watch the Porto vs Arsenal match because I thought Arsenal could beat Porto easily. In fact I was wrong, Porto played well at home and they managed to make Arsenal lose in the final minutes. This deserves appreciation considering that Porto is not the favorite team against Arsenal, but their defense and the good way they build attacks prove that Porto has a good mentality in the Champions League.

I watched the Napoli vs Barcelona match. Barcelona dominated the match and they appeared impressive throughout the match. Barcelona's performance in this match also deserves appreciation, even though in general they were still unlucky to score many goals. Lewandowski, Gundogan and Lamine Yamal had chances to score in that match, but Maret really looked impressive and made important saves. A fair draw, maybe not if you are neutral about the match.

I would have understood if Arsenal played much better but just got unlucky, that happens in football, just recently City had 25+ shots and scored only once, that type of unlucky situation could have happened and I would totally understand that.

But Arsenal didn't even play all that well, it didn't become all that obvious for that and that's the trouble for me, why didn't they played that well and I think that should be the most important part of it we should consider the situation to be a little bit different in this case. I understand why people would have trouble with it, but that doesn't mean that we should be considering Arsenal as unlucky, they just straight up played terrible and that's their problem, they should fix something next time.

I agree with you. Arsenal don't underestimate Porto. Arteta is an experienced coach. He was probably well aware of the opponent's strength. Good results are not possible by underestimating the opponent. The Arsenal boys tried. But they failed to play well. We should definitely appreciate Porto's gameplay. This team performed well. This is why Arsenal players were under a lot of pressure and failed to play well. Porto's defense was very strong in this match. Therefore, Arsenal players cannot launch any strong attacks.



I find it hard to believe that this is Arsenal who beat Burnley, West Ham and Liverpool in their last three Premier League games? The team won 5-0 against Bunrley, 6-0 against West Ham and 3-1 against Liverpool. The team played well in every match. But the surprising thing is that this same team could not get a single shot on target against Porto. Despite having 65% ball possession, Arsenal did not have a single shot on target.



Porto proved their defense is very strong. Even in Liga Portugal matches we see Porto's strong defense. They are third in the table only because of weakness in attack. So it won't be easy for Arsenal to break down Porto's defense at home. The next match between these two teams will also be very competitive. Arteta will definitely need to think of a different match strategy if they want to qualify for the next round.

Before the match started Arsenal were the favorites to win the match, it was surprising when in the end Arteta fleet had to bow to Porto. Of course there is something wrong with Arsenal if they compare their victory against Burnley, but Porto is different from Burnley and doesn't want to concede 5 goals. Another very bad thing is the statistics recorded, where Arsenal did not have a single shot on target, in that case I think Arsenal is really bad.

If you look at Arsenal history of failure in the round of 16, they were eliminated 7 times, perhaps this makes them haunted by a curse. In my opinion, in the second leg, Arsenal will have the opportunity to reverse the goal deficit, but Arteta must look for different solutions and strategies, to dismantle Porto relatively solid defense line.

Arsenal must be able to take advantage of the momentum of playing at the Emirates, getting full support from their own supporters. Porto chances of qualifying for the quarter finals could exceed 50%, if Arsenal fails to create consistency in the EPL. Everything really depends on Arteta strategy in the second leg, how to motivate the players to bring out their best talents.

Porto is a good team and apart from that they have solid players and a good defense so they can make it difficult for the opposing team to score goals.
In that match, Arsenal dominated the game overall but were unable to score a goal because Porto's defense was very good. And what Porto scored was a very painful goal, because the goal occurred in the remaining minutes of extra time which was about to end.
And for the Napoli vs Barcelona match, in my opinion both teams are equally strong and played very carefully, so in my opinion they deserved a draw and statistically the two teams only have a small difference.

I don't think Arsenal really underestimated the Porto side and we know how strong they (Porto) have been since the beginning of this very campaign and I think they're trying in their league. Arteta's boys did pretty bad last night and it might affect their play this weekend when they go head to head against Newcastle, I mean how can you go all through the game without a single shot on target, that's not the Arsenal team we saw beat Burnley last week.
Porto could choose to be stubborn at the Emirates with much defending and it can even end 1-1 in that encounter with Arsenal being kicked out of the competition and I can't really say the Gunners have what it takes to move to the next round as it is coupled with the fact that this is the first time Arteta is handling a team in the round of 16 of the champions league, so I'd say it would be a 50/50 thing if the Gunners scale through.

Napoli is a weak team. They didn't play particularly well yesterday. They were that good only because Barcelona too is not a strong team. If Napoli had played like that against an in-form Man City or Inter Milan, they would have lost.
As bad as Barcelona was, they were the better team. They deserved a win more than Napoli yesterday. Barcelona's problem was winning the ball back. Whenever they lose the ball, they find it very difficult to win the ball back and that allows the other team to press them.
Napoli's game yesterday came due to poor defending by Inigo Martinez.


I didn't really pay attention to the starts but there was a point yesterday in the first half where Barcelona was so superior to Napoli in the second half. At that point Barcelona had 11 shots and 4 on target while Napoli had 4 6 with 1 on target.
Barcelona were not a good team yesterday but they were better than Napoli.
In the second leg, Barcelona has the advantage of playing at home and if they can be better than they were in the first leg they would win and go through.

Really, Arsenal really have to go home with their heads held high from the first leg of the last 16 of the Champions League. They had to admit their painful defeat because the goal occurred just moments before the match ended. Arsenal were basically favorites to win the first leg, but what happened was just the opposite.

Porto is a strong team and should not be underestimated by anyone, but people may be placing too much hope in Arsenal because of their good performance in the Premier League. Of course, many fans were disappointed with the result of the match, but Arsenal has a big chance of come back in the second leg.

Same thing about Barcelona, ​​they had to settle for a draw as Napoli managed to avoid a home defeat. Napoli didn't have many chances throughout the match, but they really put in the effort to strengthen their defense to not concede many goals while capitalizing on Barcelona's defensive mistakes. In the end Osimhen scored in the second half and that is one shot on goal and it became a goal.

It's lucky to have a player like Osimhen who is still making the best contribution even though Napoli in a bad state and I also have the same hope, hopefully he will soon leave Napoli to achieve greater heights in his career.
Initially I said Osimhen was bad this season but there was a cause for everything and the cause was all in the Napoli owner who destroyed the club future himself.
I remember Osimhen once saying he would at least stay until this season out of respect for the Napoli president and after that he would leave the club.
In the next match, Barcelona seems to have a big chance to qualify because Napoli playing badly at home and the away match will reduce the confidence of the Napoli players.

Arsenal's situation enrages me. When you mentioned they controlled the game but didnt score, you were right. I can see that having the ball most of the time and creating chances arent enough without goals. I agree with all you said about Porto's Emirates plan. They'll probably wait for strikes to return. Arsenal must reconsider their play. I dont think Arteta's dissatisfaction with Porto's performance will change the past. Switch strategy for the second match. Arsenal has the talent and home field advantage to turn things around, but they cant give Porto another chance. They should cease managing the game and focus on ending successfully.