Mikel Arteta hails magic night as Arsenal reach Champions League quarter-finals

LONDON – Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta celebrated a “magic night” as his side held their nerve to reach the Champions League quarter-finals with a penalty shoot-out victory over Porto on March 12.

Leandro Trossard’s first-half goal made it 1-1 on aggregate after Porto had edged out the first leg, but Arsenal could not conjure a winner in normal and extra time before they triumphed 4-2 on penalties.

It is the first time the Gunners have reached the quarter-finals since 2010, after which they suffered seven successive last-16 exits before a six-season absence from Europe’s elite club competition.

“A magic night. We expected a really tough opponent. It was very difficult to generate momentum and that’s credit to (Porto),” Arteta said after the match at the Emirates.

“It’s a huge experience for us. We had to do it as well through penalties. Credit to (goalkeeper) David (Raya), who had some difficult moments to start but showed incredible determination and stood up and got rewarded.”

Loanee Raya had returned to the starting line-up after being unable to play against his parent club Brentford last weekend as Arsenal won an eighth successive English Premier League match to move top of the table with 10 games left.

The Spaniard proved the hero on a tense night as he kept out Galeno’s penalty to spark wild celebrations.

“Obviously it’s a great feeling for me personally, first time in the Champions League and for the club to get into the quarter-finals for the first time in so many years,” Raya said.

“We’ve worked a lot on penalties this year and all the hard work with the goalie coach and the team has paid off. A great moment personally and collectively.

“You play football for these kinds of things and I’m lucky to be playing for Arsenal.”

There was a mood of euphoria at the end and Arteta also said the fans had helped his young side get over the line.

“We’re starting to create an unbelievable energy in the stadium, we were all pushing to get it done and together we have done it,” he said.

“We absolutely love (the fans), the energy they gave, how positive they were, how they contributed. They made us win, it’s as simple as that.”

Meanwhile, Uefa said on the same day that the revamped Champions League next season will feature a tennis-style seeding system for the last-16 phase.

A semi-automated draw will also replace the manual draw, which has become a feature of the competition.

Next season’s competition will expand from 32 to 36 clubs, with the current eight groups of four replaced by a single group in which teams play eight games against different opponents.

The top eight clubs will automatically qualify for the last 16 while those finishing ninth to 24th face a play-off round to determine the other eight.

Unlike the current open draw for the last 16, clubs will be seeded in a tennis-style draw depending on their performance in the group phase. This will mean the first and second seeds cannot meet until the final and cannot play the teams seeded third and fourth until the semi-finals at the earliest.

Another change will be to the Champions League draw ceremony, a laborious process traditionally involving balls being picked from different pots by former players.

Next season’s group-stage draw will be a new hybrid system with some drawing of balls but mostly done digitally.

Uefa found that performing the draw without digital help would take “three or four hours” and involve around 900 balls.

In other news, Bayern Munich fans have been banned from attending the away leg of their Champions League quarter-final after their supporters threw fireworks onto the pitch during their 3-0 win at Lazio earlier in March.

Uefa had previously fined Bayern €40,000 (S$58,000) after travelling fans also set off fireworks during their 2-1 win at Copenhagen in October. The club were given a suspended one-match ban from purchasing away tickets in December. The incident at Lazio then triggered the ban.

Bayern will not appeal against the decision. AFP, REUTERS