At risk of yet another premature exit from the Champions League, Arsenal seek to overturn a 1-0 deficit when Porto arrive at the Emirates for the second leg of their last-16 battle on Tuesday evening.
Mikel Arteta's men were on the cusp of taking a respectable goalless draw back to base from the opening encounter, only to be undone by an astounding last-minute strike from Galeno.
Match preview
There was seemingly no quelling the goalscoring Arsenal juggernaut after the Gunners hit West Ham United for six and put five past Burnley without reply before the first leg of their last-16 showdown with Porto, whose final group game in the Champions League had seen them ship five goals to Barcelona.
However, as Arteta's side played right into Porto's hands with the concession of needless fouls - albeit several soft ones - and naivety right at the death, Sergio Conceicao's men capitalised in incredible circumstances, as Galeno's long-range curler nestled into the bottom corner.
An uncharacteristically toothless Arsenal departed the Estadio do Dragao without managing a single shot on target - not since 2011 had they achieved that unwanted feat in the Champions League - but Arteta has got the response he was looking for from his troops, who woke up on Sunday sitting pretty at the top of the Premier League table.
Three successive wins over Newcastle United, Sheffield United and Brentford - the latter thanks to an 86th-minute Kai Havertz header - saw Arsenal reclaim their perch for the first time since December, and Liverpool's 1-1 draw with Manchester City means that the Gunners are still looking down on the other 19 teams with 10 games remaining.
In between watching the mouthwatering Anfield battle with his feet up, Arteta seeks the winning formula which will prevent Arsenal suffering an eighth successive Champions League exit at the last-16 stage, and the Spaniard witnessed his side win all three of their group games with 12 goals scored and zero conceded during the autumn.
Only once in their past 10 attempts have Arsenal managed to progress in the Champions League after losing the first leg, although that triumph appropriately came against Porto in the 2009-10 campaign, which remains the most recent occasion that the Gunners reached the quarter-finals of Europe's top competition.
Seeking to ensure that history does not repeat itself on the North London soil, the Portuguese powerhouses arrive in the English capital on the back of a morale-boosting set of domestic results of their own, including an unbelievable 5-0 destruction of reigning Primeira Liga champions Benfica on March 3.
Conceicao's crop followed up that slaughter of the holders with a routine 3-0 success away to Portimonense on Friday night, where Galeno was on target once again after netting a brace against Benfica, although the title is still out of Porto's hands; they sit four points behind leaders Sporting Lisbon having played two more games.
Not since the 2012-13 season, against Malaga, have the Dragons been eliminated from a Champions League last-16 tie after prevailing in the first leg, but history must be written if they are to avoid that unwanted scenario from occurring again; Porto have failed to win all of their previous 22 games in England, and their only success against a Premier League team not on home territory came against Chelsea in Seville in 2021.
Furthermore, each of Porto's previous three visits to the Emirates Stadium has seen the Portuguese side suffer defeat without scoring a goal, as after triumphing 2-1 in the 2009-10 last-16 first leg, the visitors were subjected to a 5-0 Arsenal annihilation in the reverse fixture, where the mercurial Nicklas Bendtner netted a treble.
Team News
Arsenal's six-goal thrashing of Sheffield United saw Gabriel Martinelli sustain a nasty cut to his foot, and the Brazilian was not seen in training on Monday, suggesting that he will not be involved in the second leg.
Takehiro Tomiyasu (knock) has a better chance of being fit, though, while Jurrien Timber is still a number of weeks away from making his comeback from an ACL injury, but the Gunners were boosted by Oleksandr Zinchenko's return from a calf concern against Brentford.
David Raya watched on helplessly during the clash with his parent club but is now eligible to reclaim his place in goal from Aaron Ramsdale, who was guilty of a first-half howler for Brentford's equaliser but redeemed himself with a pair of fine second-half stops.
Regarding Porto's availability, left-back Wendell has recovered from the blow which saw him substituted towards the end of the first leg, but fellow defenders Zaidu Sanusi and Ivan Marcano are both on the long road to recovery from ACL problems.
Gabriel Veron is also nursing an Achilles issue, but Porto fans can rejoice in one piece of good news on the injury front, as star striker Mehdi Taremi is expected to be involved after missing the first leg with a thigh concern.
Twenty-one-goal striker Evanilson is not droppable, though, so Francisco Conceicao might have to be sacrificed to accommodate Taremi's return, and the Porto defence will once again be marshalled by the veteran Pepe, still going strong at 41 years of age.
Arsenal possible starting lineup:
Raya; White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko; Odegaard, Jorginho, Rice; Saka, Havertz, Jesus
Porto possible starting lineup:
Costa; Mario, Pepe, Otavio, Wendell; Varela, Gonzalez; Conceicao, Pepe, Galeno; Evanilson
We say: Arsenal 2-0 Porto (Arsenal win 2-1 on aggregate)
Porto's defensive mastery may have won out against Arsenal's futile attacks in the first leg, but the Gunners should have learned some valuable lessons from that encounter and have been a different beast in Europe in front of their own fans thus far.
The visitors will have had an extra day to recuperate from their domestic exertions, but they are still unable to shake their hoodoo on English soil, so we have faith in Arsenal to lift their own Champions League curse and put their ball in the pot for the quarter-final draw.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
body check tags ::
Previews by email
