Edu Gaspar has insisted that Arsenal will have to take FC Porto seriously in the UEFA Champions League if they are to progress to the quarter-final stage.
The Gunners were drawn against the Portuguese giants in Monday's last-16 draw, meaning they avoided the likes of Paris Saint-Germain and Napoli. The reaction within large proportions of the fanbase has been positive, with some already looking ahead to the quarter-final.
Porto finished second in their group that contained Barcelona, Shakhtar Donetsk and Royal Antwerp. Sergio Conceicao's side needed a 5-3 win over Donetsk in the final round of fixtures to qualify, with 40-year-old Pepe still starting for them.
And while they currently sit third in Liga Portugal, technical director Edu Gaspar has claimed that Porto will be no easy task for the Gunners. «We are going to play against a club that is very used to playing in the competition because they play in in every single year and they have a lot of players as well with big experience,» he said after the draw.
«We have to understand how are we going to play and respect them as much as we can. We will play our game and see if we can go through this stage.
»We can see how they are playing, how organised they are, and the players that they have. Porto is a club that you have to have to be really prepared to play against or we'll have problems, so what we have to concentrate on is maintaining our levels and the way we are playing."
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The Gunners have come up against Porto on three different occasions in the past but they have never won at the Estadio do Dragao.
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