Arsenal fans could be forgiven for being a bit nervy tonight as they look to overturn a 1-0 first leg defeat against Porto to keep their Champions League hopes alive.
The Gunners were far from at their best as the Portuguese giants beat them 1-0 in the first game between these two sides, but many will still have Mikel Arteta’s Premier League leaders as the favourites to go through to the quarter-finals of this season’s Champions League – a competition they may even feel they could be one of the favourites to go all the way and win.
History is certainly on Arsenal’s side, with Porto having a particularly poor record in trips to England, while they’ve also lost all three of the away games they’ve ever played against Arsenal, failing to score even once.
See below for these stats from Opta statistician Orbinho…
Porto have never won away from home in England in 22 attempts.
— Orbinho (@Orbinho) March 12, 2024
Arsenal have won all three home games against Porto with the Portuguese side failing to find the net in any of those games.
— Orbinho (@Orbinho) March 12, 2024
Still, Arsenal’s Champions League record isn’t the best, with so many of their recent attempts at getting past the last 16 ending in failure, and often embarrassingly so as they’ve been thrashed by the likes of Barcelona and Bayern Munich.
But of course, AFC fans will also surely be aware that the last time they won a last-16 tie and made it into the quarter-finals, it was thanks to a second leg home win over Porto, when they overturned a one-goal deficit from the first leg…
Arsenal have been knocked out at the Last 16 stage in each of their last seven Champions League campaigns. The last time they did progress at this stage though was against Porto.
— Orbinho (@Orbinho) March 12, 2024
Does this all point towards an Arsenal win tonight? While you can take nothing for granted in football, it certainly seems like an almighty task from Porto to repeat their trick of their victory from a few weeks ago.