David Raya the shootout hero as Arsenal sneak past Porto and into quarter-finals

It was ugly, extraordinarily tense, exponentially so. Everybody knew as the closing stages of regulation time ticked down that it would take just one moment to prise the warring parties apart, to deliver a defining victory. The feeling would only harden in extra time.

Mikel Arteta could feel the weight of history, his own as the Arsenal manager in European competition, even going back to his playing days at the club. Never before in five Europa League knockout ties as the manager at this stadium had he tasted victory – and there had been a few sobering reverses. More broadly, Arsenal had not made it to a Champions League quarter-final since 2009-10, losing in their previous seven last-16 ties. Arteta had been on the books as a midfielder for five of those.

Leandro Trossard got the goal before half-time of normal time to cancel out Galeno’s first-leg fizzer for Porto. We had waited and waited for that, Arsenal creating nothing clearcut and it turned into a slog thereafter, heavy on physically, the spaces so tight; the creative quality low. Penalties loomed. They were inevitable.

There were chances in the final stages of regulation time. Francisco Conceição extended David Raya while the Arsenal substitute, Gabriel Jesus, was denied at close quarters by Diogo Costa. Then, after the Porto goalkeeper had parried a Bukayo Saka shot, Martin Ødegaard might have done better with the rebound.

As well as that, there was frustration and rage. Arteta and his Porto counterpart, Sérgio Conceição, were booked for dissent and there was the flashpoint in the first period of extra time when Kai Havertz shoved Sérgio Conceição in the technical area as they moved towards a dead ball. For a second, it looked as though the benches were ready to empty. They did not. We waited for another eruption.

There would be two during the penalty shootout, both provided when Raya went to his left on the kicks from Wendell and Galeno in rounds two and four. Wendell’s kick would hit the post, go back into Raya and somehow ricochet wide. And with Arsenal nervelessly perfect – Ødegaard, Havertz, Saka, Declan Rice in that order – the scene was set for Raya to provide his finest moment in an Arsenal shirt, to be the hero.

This time, he got his hands to the kick, Galeno left devastated, his Porto teammates, too. The release of Arsenal euphoria was really something.

Arsenal have been practically perfect in the Premier League since their winter break, winning eight out of eight and averaging more than four goals per game. Which had only made the first-leg defeat in Porto stand out even more. It was certainly a night of frustration; no shots on target, Porto also keeping them out on set pieces by hook or by crook. Arteta knew that lessons needed to be learned.

It stuck in the throat of Sérgio Conceição but the theme of the first tie from an Arsenal point of view had been Porto’s dark arts, how they sought to fracture the rhythm of the tie. The home crowd were certainly on to that here, howling as Otávio went down for a cheap free-kick, Diogo Costa took his time over a goal-kick and Galeno did likewise twice with throw-ins. All this came inside the opening six minutes.

Porto set out their stall, the arrangement and personnel exactly the same as three weeks ago. Eduardo Pepê was tucked in on the right of a midfield three while Conceição ordered his son, Francisco, and Galeno to be extremely aware of their defensive duties on the wings. Not without good reason had Arteta billed this as a test of his team’s emotional control and he probably could have extended that to the Arsenal support.

The first half was the definition of attritional. Porto did what they were always going to do; go down and stay down, take their time. Arteta wanted hustle and he could even be seen cajoling the ball boys into getting it back into the hands of his players more quickly.

Porto measured their first-half progress in the winning of duels, in last-ditch defensive interventions, such as Pepe’s flicked header away from Kai Havertz at the last. After which the veteran centre-half crumpled to the ground. And yet Porto did have a few flickers and Evanilson’s chance on 23 minutes was more than that, a full-blooded hit that Raya did superbly well to save.

Arsenal waited for their moment. Ben White looped an early header high, Saka almost induced a spill out of Costa. The pickings were slim. But then it came, the big chance, brilliantly created by Ødegaard and clinically dispatched by Trossard.

Ødegaard cut away Conceição, all quick feet and easy balance. He did likewise to Pepê, having faked to shoot and, as he did so, he could see Trossard make his move in behind João Mário. The Porto right-back was ball-watching. Ødegaard punched it into Trossard, whose first touch was true and the second was even better, a low insertion into the far corner.

Porto squeezed higher at the beginning of the second period, even though the fundamentals of their approach would not change. Arsenal needed to be wary of the sucker punch, with the pace of Conceição Jr a weapon. Arteta’s team felt their opponents push Turpin to the limit. How did Conceição avoid a booking for a hack at Trossard?

Arsenal laboured to create and, when they thought they had broken through on 67 minutes – with their first real forward thrust of the second half – they were denied by Turpin. Correctly. He saw that Havertz had a handful of Pepe’s shirt as they chased a high punt back towards Costa. It did not matter when Ødegaard lobbed home the breaking ball. Arteta was booked for his furious reaction.

Sérgio Conceição would suffer the same fate after overheating when Evanilson was denied a free-kick on the edge of the area. It was draining.