3 positives & negatives as Arsenal emerge victorious from Porto penalty shootout

There were plenty of positives and negatives as Arsenal emerged as victors from a penalty shootout against Porto.

Arsenal started the game on the front foot, as many would have expected, but, similarly to what we saw in the first leg, Porto's defence held strong and frustrated the Gunners for large periods.

Despite this, Mikel Arteta's side persisted and looked to have the stronger first-half display, which was eventually rewarded as Leandro Trossard opened the scoring after 41 minutes thanks to a superb pass from captain Martin Odegaard - a goal which saw Arsenal pull level on aggregate.

The Gunners were frustrated for much of the second half and had to guard cautiously against Porto, who looked threatening on the counter. By full-time, there was nothing to split the sides as we headed to extra time.

Despite continuing to look just about the better side, Arsenal were unable to get their noses ahead and the game finished level, forcing us to a penalty shootout.

It was David Raya who stole the show, as he produced two excellent saves to deny Porto and see the Gunners triumph, as they secured their place in the quarter-finals of the Champions League for the first time since 2010.

3 positives & negatives as Arsenal emerge victorious from Porto penalty shootout

After such an emotional rollercoaster of a game, here are the positives and negatives from it.

Positive #1: David Raya's heroics

The drama and mixed opinion surrounding Arsenal's goalkeeping department has often stolen headlines for all the wrong reasons this season, but last night saw Raya out in a truly remarkable display, worth every ounce of praise that will inevitably come his way.

The Spaniard cut a calm and composed figure between the sticks and was on top form all night, having also made several crucial saves in regular and extra time to deny the visitors of a potentially tie-winning goal.

Raya's mentality immediately after the game was also second to none, as he showed annoyance at not having saved a third penalty that he got his fingertips to, saying: "I should have saved three, but I'm over the moon to save two."

Negative #1: A lack of cutting-edge

It is easy to be blinded by the joy and adrenaline of a penalty shootout victory, but it remains a fact that we managed to score just once against Porto across two legs, and took just four shots on target across both legs too.

But while we can voice concern for showing a lack of cutting edge in attack, we did so against the team who have conceded the third fewest goals across Europe's top six leagues, which tells a very different story to the narrative of 'Arsenal struggled to beat Porto'.

There is no doubt that in future rounds of the competition, we will need to step up a gear if we want any hope of advancing further, but this team have shown that we can score goals in abundance when things work, so this is not an area that I would dwell on.

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