Arsenal travel to Porto for their first Champions League knockout fixture in seven years on Wednesday night.
A convincing group stage campaign saw the Gunners win a pretty tame Group B, and their reward is a winnable round of 16 tie against Portuguese side Porto.
Arsenal head into Wednesday’s clash in majestic form, while the hosts have endured a mixed start to 2024. Mikel Arteta’s side have won five straight Premier League games, scoring 21 goals in the process. They’ve put West Ham and Burnley to the sword in back-to-back weeks.
As for Porto, a title challenge seems beyond them given their inconsistent form to kick-off the new year. They finished behind Barcelona in Group H to progress into the knockout stages. Can Sergio Conceicao inspire another plucky continental run?
Here’s 90min’s preview of Wednesday’s first leg in Porto.
Porto vs Arsenal H2H Record (Last Five Games)
Current Form (all competitions)
|
Country |
TV channel/live stream |
|---|---|
|
United Kingdom |
discovery+, TNT Sports 1, TNT Sports Ultimate, discovery+ App |
|
United States |
ViX, Paramount+ |
|
Canada |
DAZN |
Conceicao has few injury concerns and could welcome back striker Mehdi Taremi into the starting XI for this Champions League duel.
The Iranian has somewhat fallen out of favour having agreed to join Inter as a free agent at the end of the season.
Ivan Marcano is Porto’s only injury absentee.
Porto predicted lineup vs Arsenal (4-4-2): Costa; Mario, Pepe, Cardoso, Wendell; Conceicao, Gonzalez, Varela, Galeno; Taremi, Evanilson.
Mikel Arteta provided several positive injury updates ahead of the Burnley win, but only Emile Smith Rowe returned to the fold.
However, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Gabriel Jesus, Thomas Partey, Fabio Vieira, and Takehiro Tomiyasu could all be included in Wednesday’s matchday squad.
Jurrien Timber remains out of action, although his comeback is expected relatively soon.
Arteta could name an unchanged XI from Saturday’s win.
Arsenal predicted lineup vs Porto (4-3-3): Raya; White, Saliba, Gabriel, Kiwior; Rice, Odegaard, Havertz; Saka, Trossard, Martinelli.
Arsenal have been absolutely immense in recent weeks and will be full of confidence heading into Wednesday’s fixture. Porto, however, are tricky opponents, especially at the Dragao.
Conceicao has overseen giant-killings in the past, and they’ll need to win on Wednesday to likely have any chance of progressing into the quarter-finals.
Arsenal, though, won’t fear a compact Porto block. They’ve blitzed past their recent opponents and while a battering shouldn’t be expected, Arteta’s men will find a way.
