Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta refused to comment when asked about his post-match exchange with Porto boss Sergio Conceicao following the Gunners' enthralling Champions League last-16 success.
Heading into the second leg with a 1-0 deficit to make up from the opening encounter, Arsenal levelled the tie on aggregate through Leandro Trossard's fine first-half finish but could not find a way through a resolute Porto defence for a second time.
Following 120 minutes of nerve-wracking action, goalkeeper David Raya wrote his hero story with two saves from the penalty spot, as Arsenal progressed to the quarter-finals with a 4-2 shootout success after a 1-1 aggregate draw.
After the action had concluded, Arteta went to shake hands with Conceicao on the Emirates pitch, but his opposite number rebuffed the gesture and instead made a comment into the Spaniard's ear before the pair went their separate ways.
Conceicao then accused the Arsenal boss of insulting his family during his post-game press conference, telling reporters: "The result was unjust. Our team deserved to go through.
"During the game and towards the bench he, in Spanish, I don't know if this is to do with Spanish managers, he insulted my family. And then at the end, I said attention, who he insults is not between us, he should focus on training his team because they have a lot of individual qualities to do that."
Conceicao had previously blasted Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola for an "extremely unpleasant" attitude during their clash in the 2020-21 group stage, before also going on to claim that then-Chelsea head coach Thomas Tuchel had insulted him after their quarter-final encounter that same year.
However, when asked by the media to lift the lid on his post-match conversation with Conceicao, Arteta had little to say, responding: "No comment. Thank you very much."
A few minutes before ugly scenes broke out at full time, where the two sets of players had to be separated, Arsenal quartet Martin Odegaard, Kai Havertz, Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka all scored from the spot before Raya saved from Wendell and Galeno.
The Brentford loanee managed to tip the former's effort onto the post and then counted his lucky stars as the ball came back off his legs and bounced away, before springing to his left to deny Galeno, whose last-minute goal in the first leg had seen the Portuguese giants travel to North London with a slender advantage.
Bedlam reigned supreme in North London as Arsenal ended a 14-year exile from the Champions League quarter-finals, having last featured in the final eight in the 2009-10 season before seven straight last-16 eliminations.
"Magic, what we expected, a really tough opponent, really well organised, very difficult to generate constant momentum in the game in the way they play and that's credit to them," Arteta added.
"We did it, we scored a beautiful goal, they insisted in different ways, in the way the game allowed as well, and it's such a huge experience for us.
"We had to do it at the end with the penalties, we prepared well, and credit to the coaches as well for the way they did it and obviously for David [Raya]. He had some difficult moments to start but he stood up, had an incredible personality and ambition, and at the end he got rewarded with his moment."
Arsenal are one of six teams in the quarter-final pot alongside Manchester City, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain, while two of Atletico Madrid, Inter Milan, Borussia Dortmund and PSV Eindhoven will complete the last-eight draw on Wednesday.
With no FA Cup commitments to worry about this weekend, Arteta's men will not be back in action until after the international break, when they travel to Man City for a mouthwatering Premier League battle on March 31. body check tags ::
