Arsenal struggled in their defeat at Porto (Photo: Getty)
Martin Odegaard says Arsenal are better prepared to take on Porto in tonight’s pivotal Champions League clash – because of a Premier League rival.
Arsenal host Porto on Tuesday night with the Gunners’ place in the UCL at risk after they lost the first-leg 1-0 in Portugal.
Galeno’s 94th minute winner was a real sucker punch for Mikel Arteta’s men who struggled to break down their stubborn opposition – failing to register a single shot on target.
After the game, Arteta criticised Porto’s gamesmanship only for their manager, Sergio Conceicao, to hit back by saying: ‘They wanted to play, we wanted to win.’
With home advantage and amid their scintillating Premier League form, Arsenal are expected to overcome the deficit and advance to the Champions League quarter-finals for the first time since 2010.
And captain Odegaard believes his team are better equipped to deal with Porto’s tactics, in part because of last weekend’s 2-1 win over Brentford.
Speaking in the pre-match press conference, the attacking midfielder said: ‘There are so many different things going on in each game.
Martin Odegaard says the win over Brentford has prepared Arsenal for the Porto rematch (Photo: Getty)
‘This game [against Porto] was one where the ball was out of play a lot and a lot of stop and start and restarts and all this.
‘I think you saw that also against Brentford and I think we dealt with it in a brilliant way. I think that was a good practice.
‘We already showed in that game what we learned in Porto, hopefully we can do that even better tomorrow.
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‘First of all, we want to play our game. We don’t want to focus too much on them and what they are doing. We want to play our game and that’s the main thing.
‘We had to deal with a lot of different situations, a lot of time-wasting. We had to control our emotions the whole game and I think we did that brilliantly.’
A late goal from Kai Havertz secured the three points against Brentford last Saturday, a result that leaves Arsenal top of the Premier League table, narrowly ahead of title rivals Liverpool and Manchester City.
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