The last time Arsenal played Sporting Lisbon, they knocked us out of Europe
Today at 07:30 AM
Arsenal will face Sporting Lisbon tomorrow for the first time in over a year.
The previous occasion witnessed Mikel Arteta's side knocked out by the current Portuguese champions in the Europa League round of 16 in March 2023.
Following a tricky 2-2 tussle at the Estadio Jode Alvalade, The Gunners geared up with the target of knocking out Lisbon back at The Emirates in the second-leg which didn't quite go to plan.
Amidst almost 60,000 pulsating fans Granit Xhaka stormed The North Londoner's into the lead after nearly 20 minutes, slotting in Gabriel Martinelli's rebounded shot into the back of the net.
Despite Arsenal being handed the opportunity to wrap up the tie for the rest of the match they failed to capitalise on it. After the hour mark Pedro Goncalves caught Aaron Ramsdale off his line momentarily chipping the Englishman impressively from just inside of Arsenal's half in front of the halfway line.
After 90 minutes Arsenal and Sporting Lisbon were tied level on aggregate at 3-3 with an extra half an hour to go for either team to net the golden goal.
Unfortunately the attacking might of Martin Odegaard, Martinelli and Bukayo Saka struggled to overturn the tie in Arsenals favour in the final half an hour, forcing the encounter to penalties.
With Martinelli needing to score to keep Arsenal in the tie his effort was saved by Antonio Adan then cub captain of Lisbon. Arsenal had missed out on a spot in the Europa League quarter-finals!
After the match Arteta proclaimed Martinelli was disappointed with his critical penalty shootout miss but was insistent he wouldn't be defined by his error: "He will react well, he's obviously disappointed today, we all are, when you take those decision that possibility is always there."
Before the Spaniard further stated: "He will learn from it like Bukayo did in the past and move on."
If Arsenal can for once and for all take down Lisbon away from home tomorrow, it will be the first time since we beat them over six years ago in 2018 in the Europa League Group Stage 1-0. This is going to be a seriously tough game!
Liam Harding
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