Martin Odegaard admits rival helped Arsenal prepare for Porto – and it's not Liverpool or Man City

Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard says his team are better prepared to take on Porto in tonight's Champions League clash because of a Premier League rival. The Gunners host Porto on Tuesday night and are at risk of elimination after losing the first-leg 1-0 in Portugal.

A 94th-minute winner from Galeno was heartbreaking for Mikel Arteta's men, who struggled to break down their stubborn opposition, failing to register a single shot on target. Post-match, Arteta criticised Porto's gamesmanship, only for his opposite number Sergio Conceicao to hit back by saying: «They wanted to play, we wanted to win.»

Having shown strong league form and with home advantage, Arsenal are expected to overcome the deficit and advance to the Champions League quarter-finals for the first time since 2010. Gunners skipper Martin Odegaard believes his team are better equipped to deal with Porto's tactics, in part because of last weekend's 2-1 win over Brentford.

Speaking in the pre-match press conference, the midfielder said: «There are so many different things going on in each game. This game [against Porto] was one where the ball was out of play a lot and a lot of stop and start and restarts and all this.»

«I think you saw that also against Brentford and I think we dealt with it in a brilliant way. I think that was a good practice. We already showed in that game what we learned in Porto, hopefully we can do that even better tomorrow.

»First of all, we want to play our game. We don't want to focus too much on them and what they are doing. We want to play our game and that's the main thing.

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