Loss Champions League Round of 16: FC Porto 1 - 0 Arsenal | Wednesday 21st February | KO: 20:00 GMT | TNT Sports

Prediction

Porto 0-2 Arsenal

 

[Artemis]

People said the same about City in Europe every year.

City won countless domestic trophies including League titles. They literally play for all the trophies every single year. You cannot compare us to City.

We want to win just one major trophy (PL or CL). Klopp won both at Liverpool - including going to 3 CL finals (4 in total if you include his CL final with Dortmund).

I'm hoping Arteta can win a major trophy for us. Credit to him, he had built a great side.

Let's see what happens in the second leg. If he doesn't turn this around, please don't talk about a major trophy again. It's not gonna happen with him.

 

[Gooner Zig]

Porto were absolutely garbage, created **** all. The only problem was we were just as bad.

 

[Gooner Zig]

**** CL refs as well, what was this ref smoking? Gives Havertz a non existent yellow for a Porto player running into his arm, foul against Trossard for Pepe shepherding him off the ball, and countless soft calls which slowed the game down exactly in the way Porto wanted it to be.

I was ****ting bricks Rice was going to get sent off.

 

[teamsoutheast]

Firstly, it wasn't a worldie. It was just Raya being Raya. He stepped too far out of his line - and coupled with his lack of height - he had no chance. Whereas it would have been an easy save for other keepers like Martinez.

Secondly, Porto played a high line. Yes, they squeezed the play in the middle but that's exactly where the wingers were supposed to stretch the game. They didn't.

Now - you cannot tell me that our forward players can't stretch the play. They can. But they didn't. And that falls on the manager.

Although Porto played a high line (which I would expect them to seeing as they are playing at home) we still controlled possession overall. We had near enough 65% possession away which isn't bad really. We played for the draw hence why we brought on Jorginho (very good option for controlling possession) to see out the game . I think our crossing could have been better today. Some of the crosses were absolutely woeful from our wide players.

 

[Taylor Gang Gunners]

Saliba and Martinelli were terrible tonight.

 

[Taylor Gang Gunners]

**** CL refs as well, what was this ref smoking? Gives Havertz a non existent yellow for a Porto player running into his arm, foul against Trossard for Pepe shepherding him off the ball, and countless soft calls which slowed the game down exactly in the way Porto wanted it to be.

I was ****ting bricks Rice was going to get sent off.

A free kick was given against Ødegaard in a promising position for absolutely nothing too. Referee was diabolical.

 

[teamsoutheast]

Porto don't have a lot of quality in their final third so defensively we were always likely to look okay. But it's the way every single one of our players screwed up simple passes in the opposition half that they'd probably make with their eyes closed in the league which is inexplicable.

Nerves maybe? Some of these guys have not been this far at this level of european competition.

 

[Mohamed7]

Have you seen this team this season chasing a game with pressure on it? After we fail to break down their 10 men in the box for the first 20 minutes or so, the crowd will start groaning, the Porto players will dive and waste time and our players will turtle and get sucker punched. It's their MO in situations like this. They will be uptight and terrified at the Emirates and unless they manage to score early, it will be very hard for them regardless of how poor Porto are.

2nd leg pretty much summed in there.

Unless we come out of blocks and take our chances in the first 15 minutes, we’re done.

 

[Taylor Gang Gunners]

FM is stupid sometimes man, I’ve had players falling out with me because I praised their performances and they thought I was taking the piss.

You praise them too often and they say it may become a meme at some point

 

[Artemis]

Porto were absolutely garbage, created **** all. The only problem was we were just as bad.

Exactly! And yet some people here make Porto sound like Real Madrid LOL

They used the EXACT SAME tactics against Liverpool - and they got their backside handed to them every single time.

Because Klopp knew what to do with that Porto high line. Arteta didn't. It's incomprehensible how few chances we created.

He has to turn this around. It's absolutely embarrassing to be knocked out by Porto.

If Porto get through, they will get knocked out IMMEDIATELY in the quarter finals - no matter who they face in the quarters! Literally! That's how bad they are.

 

[teamsoutheast]

Yeah they had a lucky break that they ended up unlucky on in the first half and then didn't threaten at all until that Hail Mary at the end.

Problem was we didn't do anything going forward either.

I thought their full backs were really good. Gave Saka and Martinelli no space to turn whatsoever. I'm surprised Martinelli couldn't exploit space on their wide pitch but their full backs seemed to cover those spaces really well.

 

[lomekian]

Why do you have to lie so blatantly?

Here's Liverpool smashing Porto away:



Here's Club Brugge - yes you read that right that correctly - Club Brugge smashing Porto away in the CL:

Highlights: Porto 0-4 Club Brugge | Video History | UEFA Champions League

Official UEFA Champions League history. Season-by-season guide, extensive all-time stats, plus video highlights of every final to date

www.uefa.com

Here's Atletico Madrid smashing Porto away:


Here's Chelsea easily beating Porto away:


Here's Liverpool smashing Porto away again:

Lie so blantantly? A touch aggressive response to what was perhaps hyperbole on my part.

Ok, so it happens sometimes, but for context,
The big Liverpool win and The Atletico one were in the same season, Porto's worst in the ECL in a very long time, and the Atletico one was one of the worst refereeing performances I have ever seen - with Atletico scoring 2 of their 3 in the 90th and 93rd minute on the break (their first was an error that would see Raya executed!)

The Brugge one was super random. Porto dominated the chances and got hammered. Still topped the group and won 4-0 in Brugge. Brugge finished 2nd so also knocked out Leverkusen and Atletico taking 4 points of each.

Losing 2-0 to the eventual winners is hardly a disgrace, and that Liverpool team was the best in Europe that year, and they won it.

So yes I missed a few, but the point remains that Porto are a strong European Team with a much better tournament record than us and they've beaten some really big teams in recent years, so throwing the toys out of the pram after a 1-0 first leg defeat is touch childish

 

[Artemis]

Lie so blantantly? A touch aggressive response to what was perhaps hyperbole on my part.

Ok, so it happens sometimes, but for context,
The big Liverpool win and The Atletico one were in the same season, Porto's worst in the ECL in a very long time, and the Atletico one was one of the worst refereeing performances I have ever seen - with Atletico scoring 2 of their 3 in the 90th and 93rd minute on the break (their first was an error that would see Raya executed!)

The Brugge one was super random. Porto dominated the chances and got hammered. Still topped the group and won 4-0 in Brugge. Brugge finished 2nd so also knocked out Leverkusen and Atletico taking 4 points of each.

Losing 2-0 to the eventual winners is hardly a disgrace, and that Liverpool team was the best in Europe that year, and they won it.

So yes I missed a few, but the point remains that Porto are a strong European Team with a much better tournament record than us and they've beaten some really big teams in recent years, so throwing the toys out of the pram after a 1-0 first leg defeat is touch childish

The excuse-making is pathetic. You lied blatantly and you can't own up to it?

 

[blaze_of_glory]

I thought their full backs were really good. Gave Saka and Martinelli no space to turn whatsoever. I'm surprised Martinelli couldn't exploit space on their wide pitch but their full backs seemed to cover those spaces really well.

They paid extra attention to our wingers for sure. And neither of them had a good game, lots of loose touches unfortunately.

 

[lomekian]

Firstly, it wasn't a worldie. It was just Raya being Raya. He stepped too far out of his line - and coupled with his lack of height - he had no chance. Whereas it would have been an easy save for other keepers like Martinez.

Secondly, Porto played a high line. Yes, they squeezed the play in the middle but that's exactly where the wingers were supposed to stretch the game. They didn't.

Now - you cannot tell me that our forward players can't stretch the play. They can. But they didn't. And that falls on the manager.

It also falls on our missing players. Our recent tactics work well when we dominate the midfield, but without that dominance due to Porto playing even wider than us we needed a threat in behind centrally, and that aint trossard. Jesus up front and Zinny at IWB and I think we do them at home

 

[lomekian]

City won countless domestic trophies including League titles. They literally play for all the trophies every single year. You cannot compare us to City.

We want to win just one major trophy (PL or CL). Klopp won both at Liverpool - including going to 3 CL finals (4 in total if you include his CL final with Dortmund).

I'm hoping Arteta can win a major trophy for us. Credit to him, he had built a great side.

Let's see what happens in the second leg. If he doesn't turn this around, please don't talk about a major trophy again. It's not gonna happen with him.

That's exactly my point. City were better than us, won everything domestically, only evaded being kicked out of Europe and technicality and still effed up every year in Europe. My point being that European success is no yardstick for measuring domestic success. Wenger didn't win **** in Europe, even with the invincibles. And yet Roberto Di Matteo is a Champions League winning manager. Trying to make a clear correlation is madness.

 

[lomekian]

**** CL refs as well, what was this ref smoking? Gives Havertz a non existent yellow for a Porto player running into his arm, foul against Trossard for Pepe shepherding him off the ball, and countless soft calls which slowed the game down exactly in the way Porto wanted it to be.

I was ****ting bricks Rice was going to get sent off.

European refs tend to hate English clubs, and Portuguese teams are up with the Spanish giants when it come to elite level cheating. They literally coach cheating as a key part of the game.

 

[Heavy Duty Rom]

Saliba and Martinelli were terrible tonight.

Everyone was

 

[Sapient Hawk]

The problem Porto will go double deep block in 2nd leg losing by one goal is not something but with way we preformed we won't do s**t we need a big

Well don't keep us in suspence! A big what?

 

[Rasmi]

I stay away from the Ben White thread as I don’t want to say bad things as I truly believe he is on the spectrum. But what a stupid player he is. Again take ages on throw ins, can’t adapt to corners when the ref gives everything he kept getting involved over and over. He seems so absent minded most of the time. Just a weird player