Arsenal had fans on the edge of their seats for 90 minutes as they managed to beat Benfica 4-3 on aggregate across two nerving ties in Athens and Rome. The North London side progress to the round of 16 where they look to continue in the competition.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang opened up the scoring 20 minutes in, following a tremendous through ball from star boy Bukayo Saka. The striker’s effort was dinked over the keeper and found the back of the net.
Benfica were able to score one either side of half time to take the lead through Rafa Silva and Diogo Goncalves; the latter scoring a remarkable free-kick from the edge of the box.
Arsenal Left-back Kieran Tierney found himself on the score sheet to score the equaliser through a perfectly executed shot and when Arsenal fans thought it was over for them, Saka shone again and crossed the ball into Aubameyang at the back post for the striker to get his second of the night and end the game on a high for Mikel Arteta and the squad.
Here are my talking points from the game…
1. Mistakes and sloppiness
Now, of course, Arsenal won the game, but that doesn’t take away the fact that especially in the first half, there was no rhythm in the passing and they were giving the ball away too easily and too often. The mistakes made allowed Benfica to have the ball and move forward to create chances.
There were a couple of moments in the game where Arsenal made mistakes on the edge of their box, allowing Benfica to capitalise on the free-kick opportunities, which is exactly what they did.
One player who made a mistake that cost Arsenal during the game was Dani Ceballos. The Spaniard was at fault for the Portuguese side’s second goal after failing to head the ball away in a direction that wouldn’t come to the feet of a Benfica player.
Ceballos was also unlucky to give away the free-kick for Benfica’s first goal. His impressive spells in the game were overshadowed by the mistakes but it will certainly be a game that the midfielder looks back on and can learn from his mistakes.
Luckily enough for Arsenal, Arsenal’s mistakes were outweighed by their ability to get forward in the ball and get players on the end of the ball.