Champions League takeaways: Arsenal stunned by Porto, Barcelona frustrated in Naples

Arsenal stunned at the death For Barcelona, a tie that feels like a loss Lamine Yamal sets yet another record

Doug McIntyre

Soccer Journalist

If Arsenal and Barcelona are to progress to the quarterfinals of the 2023-24 UEFA Champions League, they both must win their next match.

The Gunners will return to North London for the decisive second leg of their total-goals series with Porto on March 12 trailing 1-0 on aggregate after being stunned by the hosts’ 94th minute winner in Portugal on Wednesday:

In Italy, Barça squandered the lead Robert Lewandowski gave them on the hour mark, with Napoli striker Victor Osimhen’s 75th minute equalizer leaving the two sides knotted at 1-1 as the teams head back to Spain next month for the back half of home-and-home.

Here are three quick takeaways from Wednesday’s two round of 16 first-leg matches.

Arsenal stunned at the death

With just seconds remaining in a scoreless match, Arsenal looked set to send the series back to England on even terms. Porto winger Galeno had other ideas. After missing a pair of decent scoring chances in the first half, the Brazilian made no mistake when another opportunity fell his way deep into second half stoppage time, when he curled a beautiful shot past Gunners backstop David Raya to win the game and send the crowd at Estádio do Dragão home happy.

For the visitors, it was a brutal way for what had been a mostly uneventful evening to end. Yet Mikel Arteta’s team can’t complain too much about the outcome — not after Arsenal failed to muster even one shot on target all match. The lack of attacking was especially surprising considering that Arsenal entered the game having scored a staggering 11 times in its last two Premier League games.

The silver lining for the Gunners is that Galeno’s goal — his fifth in the Champions League this season — doesn’t change the calculation all that much. Sure, a stalemate on Wednesday would’ve been preferable. But Arteta’s game plan was clearly to limit the hosts’ chances and then finish Porto off at the Emirates Stadium three weeks from now.

That’s still the objective. The last eight is still well within Arsenal’s reach. Had Wednesday’s match ended even, they still would’ve had to win the second leg to advance. The task is slightly more complicated now, but the Gunners remain the favorites to move on.

They’ll need to produce a far better performance in the second leg, of course, and getting the opener early will be key. They’ll actually have to test Porto keeper Diogo Costa next time, but there’s no reason to dwell too long on this one. In fact, Arteta’s players can’t forget about Wednesday soon enough.

For Barcelona, a tie that feels like a loss

Barca’s night at Stadio Diego Armando Maradona wasn’t as fruitless as Arsenal’s Iberian jaunt, but it was almost as frustrating for the visitors. The Blaugrana dominated the proceedings in Naples — finishing with more of the ball and twice as many shots as the hosts, including a 6-1 advantage in on-target efforts. Napoli’s first didn’t come until the second half.

So Barcelona seemed to be in great shape after Lewandowski gave the visitors a well-deserved 1-0 lead. At that point, a second Barça goal seemed likely. Napoli has been in terrible all season in Serie A; the Scudetto holders are languishing way back in ninth place in the Italian top flight standings and fired manager Walter Mazzarri just 48 hours before kickoff.

But the hosts still boast one of Europe’s top strikers in Osimhen. And in his first match back since representing Nigeria in the African Cup of Nations, he proved it with a strike that came completely against the run of play:

It was a tough blow for Xavi Hernandez’s side, which still had a golden opportunity to win just before the final whistle sounded. Unfortunately for them, İlkay Gündoğan’s last-gasp attempt sailed just wide of Napoli’s goal. History is on Barça’s side, though: the five-time European champions progressed in all 20 of their previous knockout-round series in which they won or tied the opener on enemy territory.

Lamine Yamal sets yet another record

While neither of Wednesday’s tilts will be remembered as classics (unless perhaps you’re a Porto supporter), there was a piece of history made in the Barcelona-Napoli contest.

At 16 years and 223 days, Barça attacker Lamine Yamal became the youngest player ever to start a match in the knockout stage of the Champions League.

Yamal, who went 80 minutes before being replaced by Raphinha, is already Barcelona’s youngest-ever goalscorer, the youngest in the history of La Liga and the youngest to appear for Barça’s senior squad since 1922.

Doug McIntyre is a soccer writer for FOX Sports. Before joining FOX Sports in 2021, he was a staff writer with ESPN and Yahoo Sports and he has covered United States men’s and women’s national teams at multiple FIFA World Cups. Follow him on Twitter @ByDougMcIntyre.

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