Arsenal winger Leandro Trossard has joined an exclusive group of Champions League stars with his equaliser in the Gunners' 2-2 quarter-final first-leg draw with Bayern Munich.
Despite his well-taken goal in the weekend's Premier League success over Brighton & Hove Albion, Trossard started on the bench on Tuesday night, as Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli began alongside Kai Havertz in attack.
Mikel Arteta's selection initially paid dividends, as Saka broke the deadlock early doors with a well-taken curler into the bottom corner, but the Gunners were then made to pay for a couple of individual errors.
Ex-Arsenal winger Serge Gnabry and Harry Kane both returned to North London to haunt the Premier League leaders, the former finishing low underneath David Raya before Kane coolly dispatched a penalty after William Saliba clipped Leroy Sane.
However, a pair of inspired substitutions from Arteta saved the day for Arsenal, as Gabriel Jesus produced some nifty footwork in the box before laying off the arriving Trossard to sweep home the leveller.
Trossard one of four men to achieve impressive feat
Enhancing his reputation as a super substitute, Trossard has now scored in each of his first four Champions League home games for Arsenal, having also made the net bulge against Porto, PSV Eindhoven and Sevilla.
In doing so, the Belgium international became just the fourth man to net in each of his opening four Champions League games on familiar territory, joining esteemed company in Alessandro Del Piero, Frederic Kanoute and Oscar.
Del Piero was the first to achieve the four-game feat during the 1995-96 season, where he netted in home clashes with Steaua Bucharest, Rangers, Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid while playing for Juventus.
Meanwhile, Kanoute - who only ever scored seven goals in the Champions League - emulated his Italian counterpart during the 2007-08 season with Sevilla, striking against Slavia Prague, Arsenal, Steaua Bucharest and Fenerbahce.
The third and most recent player to join the exclusive club before Trossard, Oscar made waves for Chelsea in the Champions League in 2012 and 2013 with home efforts against Juventus, Shakhtar Donetsk, Nordsjaelland and FC Basel.
Trossard: 'Saka incident looked like a penalty to me'
After the elation of Trossard's equaliser, though, there was a particularly flat feel to the Emirates at full time, which came immediately after referee Glenn Nyberg waved away a strong penalty shout for a collision between Manuel Neuer and Saka.
There was a clear clash of legs as the England international skipped past his German colleague, but Nyberg appeared to be of the view that Saka had initiated the contact with his trailing leg and thus waved away the appeals, much to Arsenal's fury.
Trossard believes that the official got that one wrong, though, telling TNT Sports: "It looked like a penalty to me, it looked like clear contact. We're not pleased but when you are 2-1 down at half-time you will take point at the end.
"We started so well. We could have scored two or three goals after taking the lead. You can see what kind of quality Bayern Munich have to hurt us. Luckily I helped the team with a goal so I am pleased with that.
"I always try to do whatever I can on the pitch. Hopefully I can help in the next few weeks. We have such a great team and we know it will be hard over there. If we play at our best level we can beat anyone."
As well as following in Del Piero, Kanoute and Oscar's footsteps, Trossard has also scored six goals off the bench in 2023-24, the most of any player in the big five European leagues. body check tags ::
