Arsenal came back from a goal down as an unfortunate own goal helped Arsenal produce one of the close football scores of the midweek action in the Europa League. The Gunners, who were still without Gabriel Jesus despite his recent return to training, seized the lead in the 22nd minute when William Saliba headed home from a corner. Sporting responded with a header of their own, Goncalo Inacio flicking in from a set piece, before snatching a surprise lead early in the second half when Paulinho tapped in from close range. When Granit Xhaka’s attempted ball deflected off Hidemasa Morita and into his own net on Thursday, March 16, Arsenal ensured the return leg would start on an equal keel.
In the sixth minute, Pedro Goncalves grabbed onto a long ball in behind the Arsenal defense and beat Saliba inside the box before shooting wide with a placed effort. At the other end, Saliba rose unmarked to meet Fabio Vieira’s in-swinging corner from six yards and scored. The goal should have been disallowed because Oleksandr Zinchenko collided with a defender, but the VAR disagreed. But, the hosts responded with a goal that was nearly identical to Saliba’s when Inacio glanced in from a corner as goalkeeper Matt Turner hesitated and did not come off his line to capture the throw.
Turner had a mixed night in his first start since January, saving brilliantly from Marcus Edwards but almost putting his team in trouble while passing out from the back. On the other end, goalkeeper Antonio Adan made a key left-leg save to deny Granit Xhaka’s close-range header from a corner. At the opening of the second half, Arsenal sought to retake the lead, with Adan saving Gabriel Martinelli’s dink before Vieira blasted narrowly wide from distance. And they were caught off guard when Turner parried Goncalves’ shot into the path of Paulinho, who tapped in to put Sporting ahead.
Paulinho then had a golden opportunity to enhance their advantage when he was placed one-on-one by Goncalves but blasted wide with his left foot. Within 60 seconds, Xhaka’s attempted through pass deflected off Morita and caught Adan off guard for 2-2. Adan, on the other hand, saved Vieira’s goal-bound header before the tempo finally dropped and both sides agreed to a draw.
“It’s impossible to have a positive outcome when you concede two terrible goals away from home in Europe, as we did. The game was divided into phases because we gave up too many simple balls in our own half, giving them the ability to (exploit) transition periods, something they excel at,” Arsenal head coach Mikel Arteta said. “We had great control of the game at times, but we lost a little bit of menace tonight, especially with four players absent from our frontline. Some positives since we fought back to get back into the game, but we need to defend our box much better and be better on Sunday. We’ve recently played several extremely emotional games. We made a lot of adjustments today, and it sometimes takes time to achieve coherence. It was clear in the first 15 minutes that it would take some time to adapt and click. But unless we expose them, that will never happen.”
“If you asked any Sporting fan before the game whether a draw would be a good outcome, they would reply ‘yes’,” Sporting boss Ruben Amorim said. “Given the 90-minute time limit, some of them will be disappointed. Our guys were really savvy; we had quality in possession and generated chances upon recovering the ball. I believe we could have won the game today. We could have made it 3-1, but we conceded a second goal right after.”
Sporting CP has won their past four European games against English opponents (W1 D3), and they are now unbeaten in their last six home Europa League games (W4 D2). Arsenal has now won only one of their past six European knockout stage games (D3 L2), and they have not won a Europa League away game since November 2019 against Vitória Guimares (1-1). Paulinho of Sporting is only the second player in European competition history to score against Arsenal and Tottenham in the same season, following Youssef El Arabi of Olympiakos in 2019-20. (excluding qualifying rounds). Just Bukayo Saka (9) has more assists for Arsenal in all competitions this season than Fábio Vieira.
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