Europa League Last-16 First Leg

SPORTING LISBON 2 (Inacio 34, Paulinho 55)
ARSENAL 2 (Saliba 22, Morita 62 og)

ARSENAL showed their battling spirit yet again tonight (Thursday) as they secured a hard-fought draw against Sporting Lisbon in the first leg of their Europa League round of 16 tie.

The Gunners took the lead midway through the first half when William Saliba found the back of the net with a towering header after latching onto Fabio Vieira’s in-swinging corner.

But Sporting proved just as clinical from set-pieces when they scored a near-identical goal – Goncalo Inacio taking advantage of Matt Turner’s hesitant goalkeeping to glance home the equaliser.

A cagey game then saw the home side take the lead early in the second half when Paulinho struck from close range.

Arsenal, though, made sure the contest remains finely poised ahead of the second leg at the Emirates next Thursday when they levelled matters courtesy of a slice of luck – Granit Xhaka’s attempted pass deflecting in off Hidemasa Morita for an own-goal.

Mikel Arteta admitted that his side had gotten away with one in Portugal having gifted Sporting a couple of soft goals. “Considering you concede two goals away from home and still escape with a draw you have to take some positives,” the Arsenal manager told BT Sport.

“We gave them too much hope by giving the ball away in our own half too many times. We had control for long periods but we lacked a bit of that final touch, but we are missing four key attackers so we will take the draw.

“We showed a lot of resiliency and we are still in the tie. Everything is still to play for and we get to play at home and now we have to show that we are the better team.”

Arteta acknowledged that Arsenal “lost a bit of cohesion” by making six changes to their starting line-up. After scoring a dramatic last-gasp winner against Bournemouth at the weekend Reiss Nelson was rewarded with a rare start, while Poland defender Jakub Kiwior made his debut for the north Londoners.

The reshuffling certainly made for an entertaining game – albeit one filled more with errors than quality.

Sporting showed plenty of reasons as to why Arsenal can’t take the second leg lightly as they kept Turner busy between the sticks.

They could have taken the lead within the opening five minutes when a long ball over the top allowed Pedro Goncalves to scamper down the left before checking back inside Saliba and curling a shot just wide of the far post.

The Gunners slowly started to find their way in the game and took the lead on 22 minutes when Saliba rose unchallenged to head home.

That lead didn’t last, however, as Inacio pulled the hosts level. And in the 55th-minute it looked like a shock was on the cards when the perfectly-placed Paulinho pounced to give Sporting the lead.

Arsenal almost drew level thanks to some sublime individual skill from Gabriel Martinelli. The Brazilian forward dribbled from inside his own half, beat three defenders and rounded the goalkeeper, but defender Jeremiah St. Juste managed to match Martinelli for pace as he recovered to make a crucial last-gasp tackle.

Sporting could have opened up a 3-1 lead when Paulinho suddenly found himself through on goal and one-on-one with Turner, but the striker got it horribly wrong as he shanked his effort wide of the target.

The miss proved costly as the Gunners almost instantly went up the other end and made it 2-2 just after the hour mark when Xhaka’s pass cannoned off Morita and into the bottom corner.

Sporting: Adan, St Juste, Coates, Inacio, Esgaio (Diomande, 76), Morita, Gonclaves, Reis, Edwards (Issahaku, 89), Trincao (Santos, 71), Paulinho (Chermiti, 76)
Substitutes not used: Israel, Neto, Rochinha, Tanlongo, Gomes, Cabral, Mateus, Essugo

Arsenal: Turner, White, Saliba, Kiwior (Gabriel, 71), Zinchenko (Tomiyasu, 63), Jorginho, Vieira (Partey, 71), Xhaka, Nelson (Smith Rowe, 71), Saka, Martinelli
Substitutes not used: Ramsdale, Hillson, Holding, Bandeira, Sagoe, Smith, Walters