Kai Havertz’s late moment in Leverkusen made Arsenal history

When the draw was made a fortnight ago, many expected Arsenal to swat Bayer Leverkusen aside in the Champions League round of 16, but that is not how the match transpired. The Gunners required a last gasp penalty from Kai Havertz, cooly converting against his former employers, to salvage a 1-1 draw in North Rhine-Westphalia.

As noted by Opta, this was the latest penalty Arsenal have scored in a UEFA competition since Nicklas Bendtner completed a hat-trick against Porto back in 2010.

Arsenal's latest penalty goals in Europe since 1991

• 90+1'. Nicklas Bendtner. Arsenal 5-0 Porto. 9 March 2010.

• 89'. Kai Havertz. Bayer Leverkusen 1-1 Arsenal. 11 March 2026.

• 85'. Cesc Fàbregas. Arsenal 2-2 Barcelona. 31 March 2010.

• 88'. Robert Pirès. Thun 0-1 Arsenal. 22 November 2005.

• 86' Jorginho. Arsenal 6-0 Lens. 29 November 2023.

A couple of the late spot-kicks on the list, namely those converted by Jorginho and Bendtner, capped off comfortable home wins, but Havertz's could be crucial. On the night, Mikel Arteta's team were not impressive, and he surely was not pleased when Robert Andrich headed die Werkself in front immediately after half time. At the other end of the pitch, the Gunners rarely looked like scoring.

Bayer Leverkusen 1-1 Arsenal statistics

Arsenal's xG figure of 1.64 does not look too bad, but almost half of that is due to Havertz's spot-kick. Prior to that, Gabriel Martinelli's attempt that thwacked the crossbar (0.31 xG) and Jurriën Timber's late header (0.43 xG) were the closest they came. Either-way, they did not trouble Janis Błaswich nearly enough.

So, where does this leave Arsenal's Champions League hopes? Well, despite a disappointing draw in Germany, Football Rankings still believe that Arteta's team have a 78% chance of advancing. Should they manage this, it would likely be Bodø/Glimt in the quarter-finals, after Kjetil Knutsen's team demolished Sporting CP 3-0 in their first leg at Aspmyra.

The Eliteserien side had just two points after five league phase fixtures but, since drawing with Borussia Dortmund at Westfalenstadion, have beaten Manchester City, Atlético Madrid, Inter Milan twice and now Sporting.

Arsenal have ventured to the Arctic Circle once before. Bukayo Saka was the only scorer during a Europa League group stage fixture in 2022, a week after the Gunners had beaten Bodø 3-0 in North London; Eddie Nketiah, Rob Holding and Fábio Vieira the scorers. Fair to say, the four-times Norwegian champions are a stronger outfit now.

Nevertheless, Gooners will believe their team could progress through to a semi-final likely to be in Spain, with Atlético and Barcelona expected to take care of Tottenham and Newcastle respectively. Nevertheless, if there is to be an Arsenal invasion in Budapest in May, Arteta's team are going to have to play better than they did at the BayArena.