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Arsenal v Sporting: Champions League quarter-final, second leg – live | Champions League
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52 mins: Rui Silva catches the corner under little pressure. “We’re just so blunt in attack, although Sporting are defending well,” writes David Penney. “I feel a 0-0 is the best and most realistic outcome on Sunday, bar a scrappy goal from a corner.”
51 mins: Arsenal have a corner. Either Arsenal’s fans are still making a lot of noise or someone on the TV sound mixing desk is doing an exceptionally good job.
50 mins: Another Eze shot, this from 23 yards or so, hit with real venom but not real accuracy.
48 mins: Araujo is found on the left of the area, he cuts inside Mosquera and attempts a curler towards the far post, which refuses to curl.
46 mins: Within 25 seconds Arsenal have a shot, from the right foot of Eze, out on the right of the penalty area. It would have taken a catastrophic goalkeeping mistake for it to go in, and there isn’t one.
46 mins: Peeeeep! Arsenal get the ball back rolling.
The two teams emerge for the second half. No changes have been made to either of them.
Photograph: Simon Dael/Shutterstock
I’ve spent a fun few minutes catching up with the goals in tonight’s other game on TNT Sports’ X feed. It does rather feel that tonight is seeing two very different classes of game being played by two very different classes of teams.
“Why are Arsenal playing like it’s the last five minutes of a cup tie that they’re losing?” wonders Harry Christie. “They look frantic. Someone needs to remind them that they’re winning.” Big 10 minutes for Mikel Arteta, who’s got to remind his team how to keep and use the ball (against what has been, to be fair, a very vigorous, impressive press).
Half time: Arsenal 0-0 Sporting (1-0 on aggregate)
45+1 mins: And that is indeed that. It has been a decent game, but there’s been nothing to suggest I’m watching the European champions.
45+1 mins: Eze, with what is probably the last meaningful kick of the half, sends a 20-yarder over the bar.
45+1 mins: Into stoppage time, of which there’ll be a single minute.
45 mins: And now Mbappe has made it 2-3 on the night and 4-4 on aggregate!
43 mins: Sporting hit the post! Araujo lifts the ball across goal from the left and into the path of Catamo, whose volley back across goal beats the keeper but not the woodwork! “It pains me in the US how sloppy Arsenal is,” writes Tom Gauthier. “Their attack is so disjointed I’m convinced they don’t spend any training time in the attack. It resembles watching an amateur youth game.”
42 mins: It’s now 2-2 in tonight’s other Champions League game, between Bayern Munich and Real Madrid. Harry Kane has scored Bayern’s second equaliser on the night, and they lead 4-3 on aggregate.
40 mins: Two terrible passes: one from Raya to present the ball from Trincao, one from Trincao to present it right back again. Criminal not to turn that into a shot.
37 mins: The referee, who for a while was so good at refusing silly requests for free-kicks, gives Mosquera one for falling over theatrically.
36 mins: It’s almost a good game, this. Lots of decent play until someone’s at risk of actually achieving something, at which point either some good defending or some poor decision-making snuffs it out.
34 mins: A spell of Arsenal possession ends with a lovely spinning flick from Eze to Gyokeres, and a poor attempted return pass.
31 mins: And then down the other end Trincao finds Goncalves, whose shot is rubbish.
29 mins: A chance for Arsenal! They pass it right, they pass it left, and then they find a ball into the area, Zubimendi prods it infield, and Diomande gets in the way of Gyokeres’ first-time effort. As Ally McCoist points out on commentary, he needed a left-foot blast rather than a right-foot nudge.
27 mins: Now Sporting win a corner, Goncalves takes, and the ball bounces off a few Sporting heads before it’s eventually humped clear.
25 mins: Madueke curls the ball in, and Rui Silva claims.
24 mins: Madueke is tripped by Araujo as he advances off the right flank towards the penalty area. Free kick.
22 mins: Arsenal win and waste a free-kick and everyone is forward for it, which means when it’s passed to Catamo he is essentially clean through on goal, albeit about 90 yards out. Martinelli manages to chase him down and takes the ball off him soon after he gets into Arsenal’s half.
19 mins: Now Madueke nicks the ball away from Araujo and it rolls to Gyokeres, who shoots well over the bar from the edge of the area.
18 mins: Saliba gives the ball away to Hjulmand, who passes on to Trincao, whose shot goes wide.
17 mins: Suarez is played through, bursts into the left of the penalty area, and then a) shoots across goal and wide enough that it ends in an Arsenal throw-in, and b) is given offside.
16 mins: Catamo, back on the pitch and showing no ill effects, is now getting booed. Sporting zip the ball around a bit, working it out of defence and into midfield, but that’s where this particular story ends.
14 mins: Catamo is still down pretending to be injured, while two physios pretend to be looking after him. The referee speaks to both captains about something, and tells the physios to clear off.
12 mins: Catamo takes on Hincapie, gets to the byline, runs the ball out of play and then goes down clutching a shin and rolling around. Hincapie did make contact with his ankle, but not where Catamo is clutching, and about two paces before he went down. That is, to be frank, embarrassing.
10 mins: Two goals already in Munich, where Bayern have just equalised to make it 1-1 on the night, and 3-2 on aggregate.
7 mins: An early corner for Arsenal, but Rice’s delivery clears everyone and bounces out of play.
6 mins: Arsenal have had 82% of the early possession. Now they get into Sporting’s penalty area for the first time, great work from Eze to keep the ball and find Madueke, but that’s as good as it gets.
Photograph: Allstar Picture Library Ltd/Ed Sykes/Apl/Sportsphoto
4 mins: Now Suarez goes down, also thinking he was fouled, and again the referee waves play on. Promising first few minutes from the man in black. “This might be me trying to deal with my stress as an Arsenal fan, but I’m feeling pollyannaish about this match,” writes Kári Tulinius. “If the gunners win, they’ll have some much needed self-belief for the league run-in. If they lose it could be the kind of rock-bottom that teams use to kick against and get momentum back. The problem with the latter is that one person’s rock bottom is another’s rung on a ladder into the depths.”
2 mins: Very high-tempo start. Eze passes to Gyokeres, who plays a first-time return but Eze has run into a defender and fallen over. He thinks he was fouled, but the referee disagrees.
1 min: Peeeeeep! Luis Suarez gets the ball rolling.
The captains exchange pennants. Sporting’s looks rubbish. Not even embroidered. It’s like they forgot their proper pennant and had to buy one from a dodgy bloke outside the ground. It’s less a pennant than an insult.
The players are on the pitch! They have departed the tunnel!
“Aren’t we all loving the latest in the ‘Carry On’ series, Carry On Arsenal,” writes Jeremy Boyce, who’s clearly got his finger on the cultural pulse. Zeitgeist, consider yourself nailed. “Honestly, you really couldn’t make it up, except they manage to do so and put out a new edition every year. As a neutral it’s totally titterworthy watching them blow everything they’re going for, Frankie Howard would be proud of them. Arteta is perfect for the James Robertson Justice role, always believing they’re going in the right direction. Rice is Sid James, streetwise and smoking crafty fag wondering how it’s all gone so wrong. Kenneth Williams? Charles Hawtree? Dowman is clearly the outlier Jim Dale figure, entertaining, slight, light, peripheral but influential. Their problem is the Hattie Jacques weight of expectation that may ultimately be a burden too heavy to bear. She was a great performer, are they?”
Mikel Arteta has an extremely unrevealing chat with TNT Sport. “We know the opportunity that we have, so we’re very excited for the game,” he says. “We need to be more efficient than we were [on Saturday],” he adds. On his squad’s fitness issues, he says: “To be fair, all the boys are desperate to play.”
It’s a curious thing, this training top: in photos those vertical stripes are very bright, on the TV (mine, at least) they’re very subtle. I haven’t seen one in the flesh to know the truth of it.
An email! “Barry Glendenning is absolutely right – Arteta’s anxiety and stress has rubbed off on his players and that is why they are losing,” writes Jeff Sax. “He lacks the composure and confidence that Pep for example has.” I think there’s some truth to this, but I’m also just not completely convinced by this squad. I mean, it’s really good. But it’s not great, and the real issue is that when the players look around the dressing room, that’s also what they think. They look like they don’t truly believe they can win the league, and perhaps the only thing that can convince them they’re a title-winning squad is actually winning the title.
Asked yesterday whether either Bukayo Saka or Jurrien Timber might play tonight, Mikel Arteta said: “Maybe one of them, let’s see.” Well we have seen, and the answer is neither of them, and also no Martin Odegaard or Riccardo Calafiori. But Declan Rice, who missed training yesterday, is in.
The teams!
Team sheets have been handed in, and tonight’s lineups are as follows:
Arsenal: Raya; Mosquera, Saliba, Gabriel, Hincapie; Zubimendi, Rice; Madueke, Eze, Martinelli; Gyokeres. Subs: Arrizabalaga, Setford, White, Jesus, Norgaard, Trossard, Havertz, Dudziak, Lewis-Skelly, Dowman, Salmon.
Sporting: Rui Silva; Eduardo Quaresma, Diomande, Goncalo Inacio, Araujo; Hjulmand, Morita; Catamo, Francisco Trincao, Pedro Goncalves; Suarez. Subs: Joao Virginia, Debast, Geovany Quenda, Vagiannidis, Kochorashvili, Faye, Daniel Braganca, Joao Simoes, Flavio Goncalves, Salvador Blopa, Rafael Nel, Ricardo Mangas.
Referee: François Letexier (France).
Preamble
Hello world! This is Arsenal’s 12th Champions League game of the season, and they’ve won 10 and drawn one of the previous 11. Europe is their happy place, and this the only competition in which they’ve played and not lost over the last month, in which time they’ve been dumped out of the FA Cup by Southampton, lost a League Cup final to Manchester City, been turned over at home by Bournemouth and generally allowed the wheels to come very much and emphatically off. Tonight, nursing a 1-0 lead from the first leg, they can and indeed need to give themselves a much-needed morale boost ahead of Sunday’s Premier League enormoclash at the Etihad.
A few happy omens for Arsenal:
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The record of English clubs in two-legged Champions League ties against Portuguese opponents is jolly good – 10 wins on the spin since Benfica upset Liverpool in 2005-06.
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The record of English clubs in Champions League or European Cup quarter-finals against Portuguese opponents is even better: played nine, won nine.
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Sporting haven’t won a competitive match in England in 10 attempts since they beat Middlesbrough 3-2 in the 2004-05 Uefa Cup.
Less happy for Arsenal:
Here’s Ed Aarons’ match preview:
There was a dramatic pause when Mikel Arteta was asked what he wants from the Arsenal supporters against Sporting on Wednesday evening in the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final.
After his attempts to rouse them before the early kick-off against Bournemouth at the weekend by telling them to “bring your lunch” backfired spectacularly with a costly home defeat that ended with some fans booing the Premier League leaders off the pitch, this time the message was more considered.
“No fear. Pure fire,” said the Arsenal manager. “That’s what I want to see from the players, from the people, from myself. That’s it. Go for it because the opportunity is unbelievable. We are in April, we have an incredible opportunity ahead of us. Let’s go for it.”
The family of Shaun Burton, say they are “devastated” by the loss.
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Key events
In the opening half an hour against Cape Verde, Mikel Oyarzabal, the centre-forward, did not get a single touch.
Kyle Green gets in touch: “Your highlighting of Lalas and his absurdity is something that has prevented me from wanting to watch the coverage on Fox. While every channel has its pros and cons I just can’t.
“I’m 45 and probably the youngest of anyone who remembers him as a player instead of an opinionated insert insult here. As for the match this could be more competitive than it looks on paper Spain need a win the pressure is on them. Saudi Arabia could hold out for a draw and see what happens in their last match. “
News from the England camp, and it seems to be good news on Declan Rice.
“I’m ready and fit, raring to go. I was feeling a little bit of neural pain in my hamstring, which I was managing from after Christmas with Arsenal for a very long time. Obviously, not a lot of people would have known that. It was all behind-the-scenes stuff but it was a smart decision.
“In the end, that last 20 minutes is probably where you pick up the most, and it’s where you play a 70-minute match. But that last 20 is where you really feel your body going for it. And I think it was a smart decision because the last few days I felt really, really good.”
Alex Reid has penned today’s weekend special Football Daily.
Portugal v Uzbekistan on Tuesday enticingly pits the incredibly nice, incredibly 41-year-old-superstar-tolerant Roberto Martínez against Fabio Cannavaro, who’s won a Ballon d’Or as a player and the Chinese Super League as a coach. While the fixture following that game really does see the dream of Thomas Tuchel – in his first international job with England – taking on Queiroz, who is in charge of his ninth national side with Ghana.
The expected formations are 4-2-3-1 for Spain, and 5-3-2 for the Saudi Arabians.
The Saudi team features two Donis changes: Ali Lajami, a defender, and Nasser Al Dawsari, a midfielder, are preferred to Mohammed Abu Al Shamat and Mohamed Kanno. You may recall Salem Al Dawsari, the Saudi captain, as the man who scored the winner against Argentina.
An entertaining read, even for those of us who have just seen the clips.
In a conversation where his co-panelist is casually reminiscing about his days playing alongside Messi or exchanging shirts with Ronaldo Nazário at the World Cup, what exactly is Lalas going to talk about – coming on as a second-half substitute for Earnie Stewart in a friendly against Scotland in 1998? Helping the Kansas City Wizards finish last in the 1999 MLS Western Conference? Did Lalas enjoy an elite playing career? No. But does he do the background reading that could compensate for his relative lack of standing in a conversation with titans like Henry and Zlatan? Also no. But is he charming or funny or charismatic or otherwise magnetic on screen? Eh, no.
For the record, I once interviewed Alexi Lalas on the challenge of playing against Romario in the 1994 World Cup. He had this to say:
“He could kill you in so many different ways. If you remember from that World Cup, he scored so many types of goals. That ranged from solo adventures to an outside-of-the-right-foot half-volley off a corner kick. Romario was both the most difficult to play against and the best that I have faced.
“Roberto Baggio was doing his thing, but in terms of consistency and living up to the hype, he [Romario] was the best. As with all stars, there was a moment when the fans sit up in their seats, and that was a feeling I got with Romario. When it got close to him and the potential for his involvement in a play was there, everybody sat up in their seat. They knew that something spectacular would be happening.”
Saturday’s match reports here.
The Saudi Arabia coach, and Blackburn legend, Georgios Donis, spoke about the challenges facing his team: “Spain is not the same team when Yamal or Williams are on the bench.
“While they still have plenty of possession, they lack the individual one-on-one penetration when these two are missing. I’m not saying it’s a problem for Spain, but when those players are missing, they play in a different way. We saw this very clearly against Cape Verde.
“We are playing against one of the best teams in the world, and it’s very important that when you play against these kinds of teams, you should enjoy the experience and respect the opponent, but not too much.
“It is very hard for any team playing against Spain to have any time in possession. So what we must do is to be more in control of our movement and compact, and when the ball goes through the lines, be able to defend dynamically.
“It’s nice to see miracles in football, and we’ve seen favourites losing against underdogs. Of course, it’s great for Saudi football to have a great memory of the result against Argentina, but we aren’t drawing anything from that.
“I think we’ll feel more pressure in that [Cape Verde] game than we will against Spain.”
The Spain coach, Luis De La Fuente had this to say in his Saturday press conference: “This generation of footballers is highly competitive and really fired up… It’s going to be a completely different story,” he said at his pre-match press conference on Saturday. There is no drama or crisis. The bottom line is simply that we need to win tomorrow.”
Four changes for Spain: Lamine Yamal, Pedro Porro, Dani Olmo and Alex Baena also come into the side with Marcos Llorente, Fabian Ruiz, Ferran Torres and Gavi dropping out.
The teams – Lamine Yamal starts
Spain: Simon, Porro, Cubarsi, Laporte, Cucurella, Gonzalez, Rodri, Yamal, Olmo, Baena, Oyarzabal. Subs: Raya, Joan Garcia, Pubill, Grimaldo, Eric Garcia, Llorente, Merino, Torres, Fabian, Gavi, Pino, Williams, Zubimendi, Munoz, Iglesias.
Saudi Arabia: Al Owais, Abdulhamid, Tambakti, Lajami, Al Amri, Al Harbi, Nasser Al Dawsari, Al Khaibari, Al Juwayr, Al Buraikan, Salem Al Dawsari. Subs: Al Aqidi, Al Kassar, Majrashi, Yahya, Al Shehri, Al Boushal, Kadesh, Al Johani, Al Ghannam, Al Hajji, Al Hamdan, Mandash, Kanno, Thakri, Abu Al Shamat.
Referee: Raphael Claus (Brazil)
Perhaps one of the Saudi -players can write themselves into this high-grade selection?
Perhaps it can be their goalkeeper.
Madrid screening of Spain v Saudi Arabia cancelled due to heat
The public screening of Spain’s World Cup match against Saudi Arabia in Madrid on Sunday has been cancelled because of extreme heat forecast for the Spanish capital, officials said.
The match, due to kick off at 6pm local time on Sunday, had been scheduled to be shown on a giant screen installed by the Spanish football federation (RFEF) at a fan zone in Plaza de Colón in central Madrid.
Madrid city council and the federation decided to cancel the screening after national weather agency AEMET issued an orange heat warning – the second-highest level – for the Madrid region, with temperatures forecast to reach 40C.
“The decision has been taken with the aim of protecting the health of attendees, event staff and support services involved in the event,” Madrid city hall said in a statement, apologising for any inconvenience.
Officials urged supporters to watch the match indoors in air-conditioned spaces and avoid prolonged exposure to the heat.
Large parts of Spain are experiencing unusually high temperatures for June as a mass of hot air from North Africa moves across the Iberian Peninsula.
A total of 13 of Spain’s 17 regions are on orange alert for heat on Sunday, while the northern Basque Country bordering France is on red alert, the highest level.
Authorities advised residents and visitors to take precautions during the heatwave, including drinking water regularly, staying in cool environments, limiting outdoor physical activity during the hottest hours of the day and taking extra care of vulnerable people. AFP
Can Saudi Arabia repeat the magic of 2022?
Argentina arrived in Qatar on a 36-game unbeaten run. When Lionel Messi opened the scoring from the penalty spot after 10 minutes, a comfortable afternoon seemed in the offing. Saleh al-Shehri and Salem al-Dawsari had other ideas, Argentina had three goals disallowed for offside in the space of 13 minutes and the greatest comeback in Saudi Arabia football history was made. Argentina went on to lift the trophy, while defeats to Poland and Mexico meant the Saudis did not reach the knock-out stage.
Unai Simon over David Raya is a controversial choice for De la Fuentes. The Arsenal keeper could lay claim to being Europe’s best this season.
“Those at the Champions League final had a few more days, so I got there on the Wednesday night,” Raya says. “I arrived a bit before Fabián [Ruiz]. I was saying hello to some of the others in reception when he arrived. I went to say congratulations; that was almost the first thing I did. I couldn’t really talk [to him] after the final; I just didn’t have it in me. The next day we talked about the game properly. Just two mates chatting … I was happy for him that he could lift the trophy for a second time.”
A high pressure game for the European champions, as Sid Lowe reports.
“If we had scored one, the game would have changed,” Martín Zubimendi said. Immediately after the game, De la Fuente had offered a simple analysis: when the ball doesn’t want to go in it doesn’t want to go in, he insisted. Spain had racked up 27 shots, after all. Ferran Torres had hit the bar and seen another clear opportunity saved. Vozinha, the 40-year-old goalkeeper who stopped that, saved six more and was named the man of the match. “There’s nothing to reproach the team for,” Rodri said. “We generated chances but couldn’t put it away; the good thing is they created almost nothing.”
We wait to see what role Lamine Yamal will play today. His coach would surely like to be able to use him.
The worst mistake we could make would be to compare him to anyone. He is the midst of a process. He has exceptional footballing maturity and lives it all with total naturalness. He has great serenity and strength. We have to let him follow his path but those players who have something different are ready for that. They’re geniuses, like Dalí [who] can paint a picture, or Michelangelo. They’re different. What is exceptional to us, isn’t to them. In those extremes, they feel comfortable. Why? Because they are different. What we think is exceptional, they consider normal.
Preamble
Spain’s campaign did not get off to a flying start, and Luis de la Fuentes may wake up in the night to visions of Cape Verde’s Vozinha. He will have Georgia on his mind ever since Monday. Saudi Arabia are no pushovers and gave Uruguay a scare in their opening match. Memories of downing Argentina four years ago still abound, and so Spain might beware. They can ill afford to go into the final game with Uruguay at a disadvantage. All eyes on Lamine Yamal, whose fitness situation remains opaque, though Spain need their other forwards to come to the party.
Kick-off 5pm UK, 1pm ET, 2am AEST. Join me.
A topless man can be seen driving erratically in Edinburgh before abandoning his car and attacking a black man and a delivery rider.
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