Sporting knock Arsenal out of Europa League on penalties

Arsenal suffered a rare forgettable night this season as the Gunners crashed out of the Europa League in the round of 16, losing to Sporting Lisbon on penalties in the second leg at the Emirates stadium. Granit Xhaka’s first half-strike was cancelled out by Pedro Goncalves’ wonder goal in the second period to send the tie to extra time and penalties, where Gabriel Martinelli missed the decisive spot-kick for Mikel Arteta’s side to send the Portuguese team through to the quarter-finals.

The tie was nicely poised following a 2-2 draw in Lisbon in the first leg, but the Gunners received a major blow early on as Mikel Arteta was forced into making two early substitutions due to injury. Ben White replaced Takehiro Tomiyasu after just nine minutes, while William Saliba limped off and was replaced by Rob Holding. 

However, the two substitutions didn’t rob Arsenal of their attacking momentum, and the Gunners opened the scoring and took the lead in the tie in the 19th minute through Granit Xhaka. Gabriel Martinelli burst forward and forced Antonio Adan into a reflex save, and the Swiss midfielder was in the perfect position to tuck away the rebound, putting the home side 3-2 ahead on aggregate.

Sporting grew in confidence as the game wore on, with Arsenal not clicking like their usual selves, and the visitors found their way back into the contest just after the hour mark thanks to an extraordinary goal from Pedro Goncalves. The home side turned the ball in midfield, and spotting Ramsdale off his line, the Sporting midfielder went for the spectacular from the halfway line and astonishingly found the back of the net to make it 1-1.

The contest livened up after Goncalves’ incredible effort, with Paulinho going close from a corner and Marcus Edwards rifling the ball in Aaron Ramsdale’s face. Arsenal had chances of their own to win the tie as Leandro Trossard forced Adan into a magnificent save, and Gabriel was denied on the goal-line by Diamonde. Sporting were even reduced to ten men after Manuel Ugarte received his marching orders for a second yellow, but the visitors side held on to send the tie to spot kicks.

Martin Odegaard, Bukayo Saka, and Leandro Trossard all found the back of the net from the penalty spot, but Gabriel Martinelli found his tame spot kick denied by Adan. Sporting, meanwhile, were perfect from the spot, and Nuno Santos scored the winning fifth penalty to send the visitors into the quarter-finals and the hosts crashing out in the last 16.