Thanks to the only late goal from Kai Havertz, Arsenal beat Sporting this Tuesday, in the quarter-final first leg of the Champions League (0-1).
We had to wait a long time, a very long time even for the balance to tip to one side between Sporting and Arsenal. And it was ultimately the Gunners who managed to win this Tuesday, in the quarter-final first leg of the Champions League which pitted them against the Lisbon team (0-1). The only scorer of the game, Kai Havertz gave his team the victory in stoppage time.
Saved from the waters in the previous round by managing to come back from nowhere against Bodo/Glimt, Sporting nevertheless started the game with high morale and the feeling that anything was possible for them, even against Arsenal. For a good while, the locals were on par with their opponents. Gunners who showed practically nothing offensively during two thirds of the match.
And then little by little, they got going and started to accelerate. Martin Zubimendi thought about opening the scoring shortly after the hour mark, but the referee signaled an offside confirmed by the video (63rd). Opposite, Sporting did not hesitate and put David Raya to work on several occasions.
Havertz sort of limping
Arsenal’s Spanish goalkeeper pulled out all the stops on an attempt by Geny Catamo (83rd). A duel which had a second act a few moments later, with the same result (87th) in favor of the London goalkeeper. And it was Kai Havertz who broke the deadlock in stoppage time. Well served by Gabriel Martinelli, the German propelled the ball into the inner net of the Lisbon cage (0-1, 90th+1).
This third goal from Havertz in the Champions League allows Arsenal to breathe and look forward with a little more serenity to the return match scheduled in a week (April 15) at the Emirates. But the Gunners’ lead remains slim and Sporting has certainly not said its last word.
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