On Friday, Sporting Lisbon’s striker Nuno Santos sealed a position in the quarter-finals of the UEFA Europa League with his fifth penalty against Arsenal in the second-leg match at Emirates stadium.
Arsenal lost all the gained momentum in the first hour of the match, within a matter of seconds. The 62nd-minute strike became the highlight of the entire match. The 24-year-old Portuguese striker Pedro Goncalves produced a goal-of-the-season contender just from the outskirts of the halfway mark to beat Arsenal goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale, making it 3-3 on aggregate. The rest of the half-hour was the visitors all over the London side giving them a run for their money. During this period Lisbon fans turned the enemy territory into their home. Arsenal fans were too stunned to react to the situation that transpired right in front of their eyes. The green took over the red and gave a new shade to London.
After the end of the first 90 minutes of the second leg, the game went to 30 minutes of extra time. Antonio Adan and Ramsdale were challenged more than once throughout this period. The match eventually went to penalties. Lisbon scored all their penalties, but Gabriel Martinelli failed to convert the fourth spot kick for the hosts. This was enough to stage Arsenal’s downfall as they bowed out of the competition losing 5-3 on penalties.
In the post-match conference Arsenal’s manager, Mikel Arteta reflected back on the game, “Yeah a huge blow. We really wanted to go through in the competition and fight and go for it. Today we tried for 120 minutes and penalties and it wasn’t enough. Congrats to Sporting Lisbon firstly. Looking at ourselves it started difficult losing Tomi and Saliba and that made it hard to manage the game because we only had a window to make the subs and a few players couldn’t play 90 minutes.”
