What happened for Declan Rice at the very start was hardly ideal – a booking to clip his wings after 67 seconds of Arsenal’s Champions League last-16, first-leg tie against Porto at Estádio do Dragão. “It was a real kick in the teeth because that can change your mindset a little bit,” the midfielder said of his lunge into the Porto winger Galeno.
It was what happened at the very end that continued to preoccupy Mikel Arteta and his players as they awoke on Thursday to overcast skies at their hotel on the banks of the Douro. The late twist was the true kick in the teeth and if Galeno was the star turn, bending home the only goal in the final minute of stoppage time, then Rice was a part of it and so, too, was the issue of Arsenal’s mindset.
Arteta had raged after the game at how his players had given away possession three times in the buildup to Galeno’s shot, failing to manage the moment and feeling the momentum shift sharply. Porto are a streetwise team under the control of a highly streetwise manager in Sérgio Conceição and they will travel with confidence to the Emirates Stadium for the second leg on 12 March.
The first error was the shanked clearance by the Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya and then Rice, having regained possession, tried to make a move on Eduardo Pepê only to turn into the substitute Stephen Eustáquio, who robbed him. After Galeno – under pressure from Rice – had coughed it back to Arsenal, Gabriel Martinelli had the idea of a Hollywood diagonal to release Bukayo Saka on the break only to pick out Otávio, who passed through the lines to Galeno. With Rice backing off, Galeno cut inside and did the rest, the final question being whether Raya should have done better on the attempted save.
Going through it with a clear head and in granular detail makes it worse and Arteta had a point when he said it was cruel to brand his team naive on the back of one sequence. Yet, as he knows only too well, this is the cruellest of businesses and the overall impression, which Rice did nothing to deny, was that Arsenal had been found wanting in the intangibles – and that is not to mention the darker aspects of the game.
“The last minute is probably a bit of inexperience,” Rice said. “Just probably having a bit more savviness – in terms of it’s the 93rd minute, you look up at the clock, it’s 0-0 … we gave a ball away on the edge of our box twice and then he bends one in the top bins. We have got to have a bit of savviness to see out the game because if you can’t win, definitely don’t lose – especially in a knockout game.
“You look on the pitch at a load of their players, you look at Pepe especially [the 40-year-old former Real Madrid centre-half], with the experience he has got in these types of ties. You look at our team, we are such a young group. Some of us have not played in the Champions League before [this season].”
It was a game of fouls – 36 to be precise, the most in a Champions League game this season. Arsenal were penalised for 22 of them and it is fair to say that not all of them would have been given in the Premier League. The ball was in play for 51.7% of the time, comfortably the lowest percentage from the last-16 first legs and ninth on the list for all ties in this season’s competition. Arsenal had to manage their frustrations.
“I think when you play the European teams, obviously they are going to play and be really different to English sides,” Rice said. “The refs are really different. You can’t really get away with much in European ties.”
Rice talked about how quickly the pitch had played, how he and his teammates needed to adjust and there was even a moment when he noted that the Champions League ball was “totally different”. What Rice said on more than one occasion was that Arsenal had to learn “on the job” – with the inference being fast.
“Look, we have lost games this season and drawn games and I have seen the changing room after and it’s been really bad,” Rice said. “We have just lost here but there is a real positivity around the group at the minute. We have had such a good start to 2024.
“You are going to come up against teams who are watching us and seeing what they can do to stop us. I don’t think we had a shot on target against Porto, so it is tough to take. But we are really positive still.
“I have seen how many leaders there are in the team that drive it on and really want the best for each other. It is so good that there is an honest-speaking group. If you want to win things and go far in things, you need that. We said some stuff, positive stuff, and it’s about Newcastle on Saturday now. We have to park this and revisit it.”
