A packed Champions League quarter-final! Is Arsenal the dark horse of the competition?

Perhaps surprisingly, the most thrilling Champions League 2023/24 eighth-final offered a clash between Arsenal and Porto. Both matches ended with the home side winning 1-0, decided by two penalties taken by Spanish goalkeeper David Raya in the shootout.

Porto was an equal opponent for the favourite throughout the match. Arsenal managed to push their opponents back only twice, in the first quarter of an hour of the return leg and in the final part of normal time at the Emirates Stadium.

Icy calm on penalties

In the penalty shootout, Porto may have been the favourites given their experience, but Martin Odegaard did a great job.

Not only did he create a goal from play. He subsequently won the toss and determined the Gunners would kick first and converted the opening penalty kick.

Coach Mikel Arteta praised the character of his players after the game, as they took all their kicks sovereignly. Bukayo Saka in particular was a question mark as he didn’t have a very good game. And he missed the penalty in the Euro 2021 final. However, the three years older player was not wrong this time.

Arsenal after 14 years among the absolute elite

While last year Benfica Lisbon was among the top eight, this year all the clubs in the elite five leagues have reached the quarter-finals.

The Gunners are essentially the biggest greenhorn of all the qualifiers. Being among the top eight in the Champions League for the first time in 14 years.

“Only the best of the best in the quarter-finals,” user Marcel alluded to the progress of Manchester City, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and PSG in a liked comment under a Champions League Instagram post.

They were joined on Wednesday by Borussia Dortmund and, after a penalty shootout, Atlético Madrid. At the same time, opinions are flying in the comments that the Gunners are the dark horse of the competition. After all, they are only the fourth team in Premier League history to win the first eight rounds of the calendar year.

Source: UEFA Champions League