It’s Premier League or bust for Arsenal! After a thrilling match at the Emirates, Mikel Arteta’s men are now out of the Europa League and have only the ‘Holy Grail’ to catch: Arsenal – Sporting 1-1 (pen 3-5). Instead to Arsenal, the Emirates stadium was the place of Sporting’s football miracles tonight! After a great comeback, a wonderful goal by Pedro Gonsalves and a brilliant game by the experienced Spanish goalkeeper Antonio Adan, the Lisbon giants eliminated Arsenal in the round of 16 of the Europa League after a dramatic penalty shoot-out and deservedly reached the top eight in this competition. Arsenal led with Granit Xhaka’s goal, seemed to have everything under their control, but then squandered everything. He had better opportunities in extra time as well, until the fourth series and took penalty kicks more confidently, but then Adan read Martinelli, and Nuno Santos made the phenomenal visiting crowd happy. But the game will be remembered by a huge Aaron Ramsdale’s blunder, who came out of his goal line and allowed Pedro Gonsalves to strike a fantastic 43 meters shot which will surely be the goal of the season in 2023. The ball lobbed the Gunners keeper and gave Sporting the equalizer which they kept until the very end.Aaron Ramsdale couldn’t believe he conceded from the halfway line 🥺 pic.twitter.com/JCB3WPGbjU— GOAL (@goal) March 16, 2023 The game didn’t start well for the Gunners. Despite welcoming Gabriel Jesus’ first start for the team since the injury, they were crippled by injuries in the opening stages. Takehiro Tomiyasu and William Saliba both couldn’t continue, so Mikel Arteta sent Ben White and Rob Holding on. The English club took the lead when captain Granit Xhaka slammed in a rebound into the net after Sporting’s goalie Adan saved a low shot from Gabriel Martinelli. Gabriel Jesus got himself into a couple of promising situations, but wasn’t lucky enough to make his full comeback with a goal.Pedro Gonçalves masterclass 😮💨pic.twitter.com/bPacglU6kg— GonçaloDias17 (@goncalo_diass17) March 16, 2023 But there was a goal on the other end – and what a goal. Easily one of the best goals we’ve seen in the last couple of years. Pedro Goncalves got the ball in the center circle, seen that Aaron Ramsdale was far away from his line and struck a wonderful projectile that flew into the net just below the crossbar. Ramsdale was backtracking and he dived in an attempt to keep it out, but there was no salvation. The visiting fans went wild after seeing their team scoring one of the best goals in living memory and got back into the tie. We were back where we started with the aggregate score tied a 3-3. The goal gave wings to the Portuguese team. They continued to attack Arsenal as if they were playing against a lowly Portuguese team at home and the Gunners were dazed, but survived the 90 minutes and the game went into overtime. Home team had a wonderful chance after a Sporting defense’s blunder, but Trossard’s shot hit the post. Adan had a great save after Gabriel’s header in the 118th minute and then his next one was cleared off the line by Diomande. Adan finished the day by saving Marinelli’s strike in the penalty shootout which brought the visitors the unlikely victory.Penalty shootout highlightspic.twitter.com/aqw186BQMM— ARSENAL GOALS 🎥🎞️ (@ARSENAL_GOALSHD) March 16, 2023 UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE – Knockout stageSecond legThursday Betis – Manchester United 0-1 (0-0)/Rashford 56/Fenerbahce – Sevilla 1-0 (1-0)/Valencia 41 pen/Feyenoord – Shakhtar Donetsk 7-1 (3-0)/Gimenez 9, Kokcu 24, 38, Idrissi 49,60, Jahanbakhsh 64, Danilo 67 – Kelsy 87/Freiburg – Juventus 0-2 (0-1)/Vlahovic 45 pen, Chiesa 90+5/Arsenal – Sporting CP 1-1 (1-0) (pen 3-5)/Xhaka 19 – Goncalves 62/Ferencvarsos – Bayer Leverkusen 0-2 (0-1)/Diaby 3, Adil 81/Real Sociedad – Roma 0-0Royale Union Saint Gillois – Union Berlin 3-0 (1-0)/Teuma 18, Lazare 63, Lapoussin 90+4/
