A round-up of the latest Arsenal news as David Raya opens up on the training secret that helped beat FC Porto and Thierry Henry likens one player to an Invincibles icon.
David Raya reveals Arsenal’s trick to beating Porto on penalties
Penalty shootout hero Raya has lifted the lid on his sublime showing in Tuesday night’s last 16 Champions League second leg win over Porto. The Gunners progressed into the quarter-finals of UEFA’s elite club competition for the first time in 14 years after a 4-2 shootout win.
Arsenal trailed 1-0 following the first-leg at the Estadio do Dragao but Martin Odegaard fed Leandro Trossard after 41 minutes. The Belgian slotted home to pull level on aggregate but neither team could find a winning goal. So, Raya stepped up and saved two Porto penalties.
Raya, fortuitously, kept Wendell’s spot-kick out as the ball bounced clear off the back of the Arsenal goalkeeper’s legs. The on-loan Brentford ace also denied Galeno with a superb dive to gift Arsenal a quarter-final spot having trained extensively at London Colney for penalties.
“Obviously, it’s a great feeling, especially for me personally,” Raya told TNT Sports 1 after the shootout. “[It is my] first time in the Champions League [and the] first time for the club in so many years that we’ve got to the quarter-finals.
“It’s great for the team, obviously. I think we played a really, really good game from the start. We dominated, we created chances but then it went down to penalties. And I’m there.
“We’ve been working a lot on penalties this year just for nights like this. We need to be really, really good and, obviously, all the hard work with the goalie coach and the team paid off. Obviously, it’s a great moment. It’s a great moment personally and collectively.”
Read more about what Raya has had to say about Arsenal’s win over Porto, here.
Thierry Henry compares Martin Odegaard to Dennis Bergkamp
Highbury hero Henry feels Odegaard passes just like fellow Arsenal legend Dennis Bergkamp after their win over Porto. The legendary France striker loved how the Gunners’ captain put Trossard through on goal with a delicate pass as he shifted the ball to evade Porto’s defence.
“What I like here is what Odegaard did when the ball comes back,” Henry explained on CBS Sports’ half-time broadcast. He continued on if it was Bergkamp-esque: “Yes, very much so.
“The way he shifted the ball back onto his left foot, to find that little pass that went in between the legs of the player [and] to make sure Trossard was going to finish it, and he finished it ever-so well.”
Odegaard registered his eighth assists of the season through 36 of Arsenal’s 40 games in all competitions against Porto. He has also penned nine goals, with six – plus seven assists – in 25 Premier League games. Mikel Arteta has only been without Odegaard back in November.
Read more about what Henry has had to say about Arsenal star Odegaard, here.
Kai Havertz nearly matched Shkodran Mustafi’s Arsenal feat
Arsenal’s Champions League last 16 win over Porto almost saw Kai Havertz beat a club feat that Shkodran Mustafi still has. That is according to Opta data expert Harvey Downes, who notes that Havertz won 10 of his 13 aerial duels at Emirates Stadium over the 120 minutes.
His haul fell just shy of the 11 aerial duels from 12 contests that Mustafi won against Vitoria Guimaraes in the Europa League in October 2019. The Gunners beat the Portuguese squad 3-2 in north London that night under Unai Emery with Nicolas Pepe scoring two goals, too.
Read more about Havertz’s display in the Champions League against Porto, here.
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