Raya of light as Arsenal progress past Porto on penalties to reach Champions League quarters

Arsenal 1 Porto 0 (after extra time)

Arsenal win 4-2 on penalties.

DAVID RAYA was Arsenal’s penalty shoot out hero as he kept out two spot kicks to send arsenal through to the quarter finals of the Champions League in the most dramatic of late night victories.

The much-maligned on loan Brentford keeper returned to the starting line up ahead of Aaron Ramsdale to stake a place in club folklore.

Leandro Trossard’s first half strike earned Mikel Arteta’s men the chance to progress to the last eight for the first time since 2010 and boy how they held their nerve in the toughest of tests against a very good Porto side.

Every Arsenal player scored and then it was Raya, who conceded the last minute goal to Galeno in the first leg defeat away in Portugal, who had to hold his nerve. How fitting he should redeem himself by denying the same player with the very last kick of the tie with a brilliant penalty save.

Mikel Arteta was concerned Premier League leaders Arsenal would go off the boil with two and a half weeks before they play again next - away to Manchester City on Easter Sunday.

Now the Arsenal manager will be thankful for the break. They will need all of those 19 days to rest and recover after this exhausting battle. It was a relentless, passionate throwback full-blooded European cup tie with fouls and thrills aplenty.

Trossard scored his fifth and best goal of 2024 to send this last 16 tie into extra-time when there was little to separate the two sides. Porto were deemed easy opponents past which Arsenal could cruise into the last eight of the Champions League for the time since 2009-10.

But the Portuguese side were more than a match for England’s finest and Arteta and his players can only have benefitted from this