Mikel Arteta has admitted being a little less than comfortable after seeing his Arsenal players miss penalties in training before facing Porto.
Arsenal are into the last eight of the Champions League – but it was a tense and nervy evening at the Emirates Stadium.
Porto were leading 1-0 from the first leg, leaving Arsenal to try and get back into the tie in North London.
Leandro Trossard hauled Arsenal level on aggregate but the Gunners couldn’t find a crucial second goal.
The game went all the way to penalties and Arsenal prevailed with David Raya saving two Porto penalties whilst the Gunners scored all of theirs.
Mikel Arteta on Arsenal penalties
Arsenal’s penalties were hugely impressive.
Martin Odegaard got the ball rolling before Kai Havertz nonchalantly rolled in Arsenal’s second.
Bukayo Saka confidently fired in the third and Declan Rice effectively wrapped it up by sending Diogo Costa the wrong way.
There was no way back for Porto with Arsenal scoring four from four, but boss Mikel Arteta wasn’t feeling all too confident.
Arteta told Arsenal’s official website that he did not feel at all comfortable heading into the shootout because of Monday’s training session.
Arsenal players were taking penalties in training, attempting to prepare for the possibility of spot kicks against Porto.
However, Arteta claims that ‘a few’ of Arsenal’s penalty takers missed in training, leaving the Gunners boss fearing a repeat performance on Tuesday night.
Arsenal’s penalty takers stepped up to the occasion though with Arteta praising their maturity and confidence whilst highlighting that Arsenal prepare for ‘everything’ in training.
“No, because practising in the training ground, a few of them missed by the way yesterday, not today,” said Arteta. “We prepare everything, the extra-time, the scenarios, the changes, how the players have to drink and eat and all that and in the end, you have to do it in the game, and to replicate the scenarios is really difficult. Total credit to the boys, stepping up with maturity, with that confidence and they delivered,” he added.
This was a big moment for Arsenal, who had found 210 minutes against Porto pretty tough going.
The Portuguese side were a tough nut to crack and going out on penalties would have sparked the usual claims that Arsenal ‘bottle it’.
That isn’t the case this time though and winning on penalties on Tuesday night will feel like another major mental hurdle cleared for this Arsenal group.
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