In the first leg a couple of weeks ago, the Gunners conceded a last-minute goal at Estádio do Dragão from a brilliant finesse by Galeno, and they will be entering tomorrow’s game with a 1-0 deficit. The atmosphere at the Emirates Stadium was electric during the Brentford match on Saturday, with “Waka Waka” being sung all around the stadium as Kai Havertz scored an 86th-minute winner from Ben White’s cross. Mikel Arteta spoke about the energy of the crowd and how it will be reiterated tomorrow when Porto visits English soil. He said, “This stadium is going to have the energy that you have NEVER seen in your life, so bring your noise, bring your energy, your passion & something beautiful is going to happen.”
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WHEN & WHERE?
Date: Tuesday, 12th March, 2023
Time: 20:00 GMT
Venue: The Emirates Stadium, London
MATCH OFFICIALS
Referee: Clément Turpin
Assistant referees: Nicolas Danos, Erwan Finjean
Fourth official: Ruddy Buquet
Video Assistant Referee: Jérôme Brisard
Assistant Video Assistant Referee: Willy Delajod
TEAM NEWS
Arsenal saw Gabriel Jesus return into the fold at the weekend as he was given a run in from the bench for the first time since his knee issue forced him to miss five games. While Thomas Partey has been eased into with his minutes.
Former Porto star Fabio Vieira appeared to be in an electric mood when he came on against Sheffield United a couple of weeks back.
Gabriel Martinelli is expected to return to the squad after missing the game against Brentford with a cut that he sustained against Sheffield United.
Takehiro Tomiyasu is also expected to make the bench while the games too soon for Jurrien Timber as he works to return from his ACL injury sustained at the start of the season.
For the visitors, Mehdi Taremi will face a late fitness test after missing the first leg of the fixture while Wendell will comeback from a thigh issue that suffered when the Gunners visited Portugal.
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Pre Game Tactics
Mikel Arteta’s side found it difficult to breakdown Porto in the first leg, it was partly because of the under watered pitch which slowed the ball movement while Sergio Conceicao’s side was disciplined to contain spaces in the middle.
Arsenal struggled to create high xG chances while Porto tried to get better of them on transitions.
Tomorrow, there would be more off the ball moments from the Gunners and there will be more passes from the pockets as Arsenal will try to break Porto’s defence and open them up. Although it will be interesting to see the depth of the defensive line and what Arteta does to ensure they can contain Porto on transitions.
We should see more of Porto players going down on feather touches like they did in the first leg. This tactic was used by Brentford on Saturday to successive measures to frustrate Arsenal and Porto would be doing their bits to frustrate the Gunners crowd.
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Predicted XI
Arsenal predicted lineup vs Porto: Raya; White, Saliba, Gabriel, Kiwior; Jorginho, Rice, Odegaard; Saka, Havertz, Martinelli.
Porto predicted lineup vs Arsenal: Costa; Mario, Pepe, Otavio, Wendell; Conceicao, Varela, Gonzalez, Galeno; Pepe, Evanilson.
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