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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.”
A 44-year-old man is in custody over the incident where a woman appeared to be shoved into the path of a bus.
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World Cup 2026: Fifa urged to remove official over hand gesture; teams hit back at Ceferin; Iran arrive in US – live | World Cup 2026
Key events
More now on the hand gesture story mentioned earlier. Fifa’s discrimination monitor at the World Cup has called for a video assistant referee to be removed for appearing to make a hand gesture resembling a white supremacist sign.
“Advice from our experts is that the gesture used clearly resembles an upside down ‘OK’ hand symbol used as a ‘white power’ symbol in global far-right circles,” the Fare network, a longtime partner of Fifa and Uefa, the European football governing body, to monitor racist and discriminatory chants, flags and symbols at international games, said in a statement. “Clearly this official should have no further role to play in this World Cup,” Fare said in a statement, describing the gesture as “neo-Nazi.”
Kick-off times are more friendly for the UK viewer today. Spain v Cape Verdi at 5pm and Belgium v Egypt at 8pm. But we need to think globally so that’s 3pm for Cape Verdi viewers cheering on their team while in Egypt it’ll be 10pm for those tuning in to see if Mo Salah can inspire his team to victory over the Belgians.
The biggest test for the UK viewer today is Iran v New Zealand at 2am BST. In Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch that’ll be 1pm while in Tehran, Mashhad and Karaj it’s a less palatable 4.30am.
Thanks Sarah. As for World Cup songs, this one from the German 1990 squad always sticks in my mind. While England took the genre to a new level with New Order and John Barnes’ rap, the Germans very much went down the traditional route. A singer that looks like a cross between Chris de Burgh and Thomas Muller, Karl-Heinz Riedle on maracas, one or two playing air saxophone. Pleasingly dreadful.
I am off to grab some food and so I leave you in the hands of Dave Tindall who will take you through the next few hours of news. I’ll be back later on.
From requests of your favourite football songs to another on if you live in a World Cup host city. We want to hear from you if you have football teams in town from the atmosphere to how it is affecting business. Use the form on this page to get in touch:
We have another shout for the best/worst football song and I can’t decide which side of the forward slash this one belongs on. Graeme Neill said:
Timely given yesterday evening’s match. Japan’s Cornelius and his utterly bonkers Ball in Kick Off is worth a listen:
France will kick-off their tournament against Senegal on Tuesday and to say they have attacking quality is an understatement. The team boasts players like the captain, Kylian Mbappé, Ballon d’Or winner Ousmane Dembélé, Michael Olise and Cherki but they all have a role to play, according to Adrien Rabiot. Read more:
Jacob Steinberg
The cat is well truly out of the bag. Nobody expected the conversation to be quite so revealing when Jude Bellingham and Morgan Rogers sat on the Lions’ Den sofa last week. Content controlled by the Football Association was an unlikely place for Bellingham to drop a few truth bombs, but the England midfielder was not minded to hold back when it was time to discuss his experience at Euro 2024.
“It didn’t feel like there was any kind of hierarchy,” the 22-year-old said. “I think at the Euros we got some things a little bit wrong off the pitch. I don’t feel like the group connected as well as it could have – for a number of reasons.”
Read more:
Fifa urged to remove official over hand gesture
Fifa have been urged to remove a video review official who appeared to make a white supremacy hand gesture during Germany’s 7-1 win over Curaçao.
The governing body’s discrimination monitor at the World Cup called for Shaun Evans from Australia to be removed from the tournament.
The gesture was also spotted by several fans who posted about it on social media.
“Advice from our experts is that the gesture used clearly resembles an upside down ‘OK’ hand symbol used as a ‘white power’ symbol in global far-right circles,” the Fare network said.
Fifa are yet to comment on the situation.
There have been some sights at the World Cup but Scotland fans taking over Fenway Park is one that has been one of the most surreal. The Boston Red Sox lost 6-4 to the Texas Rangers but Scotland fans stayed long after the game was over singing “super John McGinn” and during the match there was a rendition of “yes sir, I can boogie”.
Anil Patel has emailed:
This absolute banger wasn’t attached to any particular team but is one of the best themes out there.
This is a great shout and a fun fact for you about it, it was initially written to be a baseball anthem. Some baseball news coming your way soon…
If anyone is unsure of the song I referenced, here it is:
Football songs can be iconic or occasionally cringey, that one with Dizzee Rascal and James Cordon comes to mind for the latter for me. What are your best/worst anthems for a major tournament? Get in touch and let me know.
England may have banished some penalty shootout demons in the last few major tournaments but the question of who would step up to take one is one that will always be asked. One such player who said he would take on is Eberechi Eze, despite missing one in the Champions League final. Have a read of what he said:
There will be many questions raised at this World Cup. Who will win the trophy? Who will claim the Golden Boot? What will the next standout moment be? But there is another question that has been answered in the following piece: Where have the WAGs gone?
Matt Hughes
Fox will not face any punishment from Fifa for breaking the governing body’s advertising rules during the opening game of the World Cup between Mexico and South Africa last week.
The US broadcaster broke Fifa’s strict guidelines for showing commercials during hydration breaks on the first occasion they were in operation by returning to the live action 10 seconds after play had resumed during the second half at Mexico City Stadium.
Fifa’s tournament regulations, which were given to all rights holders two months ago, state that while broadcasters can show ads during hydration breaks they must return to the match 30 seconds before play resumes.
Read more:
Sometimes a team needs a player to have some standout performances to jump start a tournament and Jordan Henderson believes that player for England will be Jude Bellingham. Henderson said:
I’m sure he will have a big impact for us in this tournament. I can remember five years ago I gave him his first cap, it was away at Middlesbrough. How much he’s grown, as a player and as a person since then, is incredible really. I had a good idea when I first saw him playing and training, and the way he was.
I think everybody forgets how young he is. We do rondos and it’s the youngest in, and there’s people that I think should be going in before him, but he’s always one of the first in the middle to go in. It just reminds us how young he is. I honestly couldn’t speak highly enough of him.
Read more:
The travel at this tournament has grabbed more than a few headlines so far and there is another one pertaining to Australia. The Socceroos beat Turkey 2-0 in their opening game with their second against one of the co-hosts, the US, on Friday. Their focus will be on that game but recovery is also high on their list. Read more here:
There have already been so many historic moments at this tournament, including Scotland’s first World Cup win in 36 years. Mo Salah is hoping to replicate the moment and end Egypt’s long wait of 92 years for a victory at the tournament. The team have their first game against Belgium today to try and make history:
Spain, who start their campaign today against Cabo Verde, are among the favourites to win the World Cup after their European Championship success in 2024. Here’s a piece on how the team are embracing the tag and how they are using one trophy-winning tournament to potentially lift another:
Uruguay will take on Saudia Arabia later today but their travel was delayed amid challenges across the tournament.
The team’s initial flight from Mexico was cancelled with their replacment delayed. The Uruguay captain, José María Giménez, described the situation as “difficult”.
Read more:
There are more games to be played today with another four in store. The details for those kick-off times and match-ups are below but do get in touch to let me know what your World Cup routine is. Are you having to get up early to watch the games? Or are you in a time zone where you can get home from work and watch back-to-back football until it’s time for bed? Email me and let me know, here are today’s fixtures:
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Spain v Cabo Verde (5pm BST, 12pm ET, 9am PT)
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Belgium v Egypt (8pm BST, 3pm ET, 12pm PT)
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Saudi Arabia v Uruguay (11pm BST, 6pm ET, 3pm PT)
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Iran v New Zealand (2am BST, 9pm ET, 6pm PT)
So what happened in the matches yesterday? Four took place with the biggest win coming in Germany’s 7-1 dismantling of Curaçao. The island nation will be disappointed with the result but they also made history as they scored their first-ever World Cup goal. That came from Livano Comenencia, who plays his club football for Zürich. Have a read of that report and others for all the latest action on pitch:
Čeferin criticised for ‘uninteresting’ comment
UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin was criticised by multiple nations from Asia, Africa and the Caribbean after reportedly saying the expanded World Cup creates “uninteresting” matches.
According to Zurnal 24, the boss said at a conference last Monday: “We have a huge number of matches that are completely uninteresting.”
The associations of Cape Verde, Congo, Curaçao, Haiti, Jordan and Uzbekistan released a joint statement, which was in solidarity with the federations of Algeria, Egypt, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia.
It said: “Football does not belong to a select group of nations. Its strength comes from its universality,” the statement said. “For many countries, participation in the FIFA World Cup is not only a sporting achievement. It is a moment that inspires a generation, accelerates football development and creates memories that last a lifetime.”
Ben Fisher
The Iran striker Mehdi Taremi has said the controversy and disruption surrounding their involvement at the World Cup undermines Fifa’s message of peace and conceded he felt the tension before arriving in Los Angeles on the eve of their opener, hours before a peace deal was announced. For the first time since the competition’s inception, a host nation has received a country with which it is at war.
On Sunday Iran flew to LA from Tijuana, Mexico, where they were relocated amid an ongoing row over visas, but are expected to face opposition from Iranians, many of whom believe the national team do not represent the country. Iran has been beset by problems in the buildup to the tournament, with several officials denied entry to the US.
Preamble
Hello and welcome to today’s World Cup news blog where we bring you the latest updates from the global event being hosted across the US, Canada and Mexico.
Any breaking news, team updates or reflections on what has happened so far will be all here for you to feast on, no matter what you are doing with your Monday.
Please do get in touch too, we always like to hear from readers. Potentially on the best underdog story at the World Cup or any quirky predictions you may have for the tournament.
Amongst several stories surrounding the competition today is Iran’s arrival in the US. The team landed on Sunday before they take on New Zealand.
More details on that story will be with you shortly, as well as the reports from the games that took place yesterday to catch up on all the latest action.
The man said his home has been targeted three times in the last five months.
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