Arsenal winger Reiss Nelson earned praise from BBC Sport pundit Mark Schwarzer in Thursday night’s meeting with Sporting CP.
The Gunners hosted the Portuguese giants at the Emirates Stadium in their last-16 second leg, with the tie evenly poised at 2-2.
Arsenal took a while to find their feet in the game. They were also dealt an early blow with Takehiro Tomiyasu having to come off.
The first Gunners opening came around the 16-minute mark, with Nelson beating his man and whipping a superb cross in.
Gabriel Jesus made contact with the ball but it wasn’t clean and, as such, the visiting defence was able to clear.
“It was the moment of real quick tempo from Arsenal it was so quick,” Schwarzer said on Radio 5 Live, as per the BBC website.
“Reiss Nelson was on his bike, beat his man and whips the ball in. Gabriel Jesus just can’t get his foot on it and Adan is able to stand tall.”
Sadly, Nelson didn’t manage to build on his early chance, going on to deliver a fairly anonymous display.
Mikel Arteta ended up taking the 23-year-old off in the 65th minute, Bukayo Saka taking his place.
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Dramatic game
Arsenal broke the deadlock on 19 minutes, Granit Xhaka slamming home on the rebound after Gabriel Martinelli saw his effort saved.
However, Sporting were much improved in the second half and found an equaliser just after the hour.
Pedro Goncalves spotted Aaron Ramsdale off his line and let rip with a 50-yard effort which sailed into the net.
The game went to extra time and both sides gave their all, with Arsenal nearly winning it on several occasions.
Sporting also went down to ten men after Manuel Ugarte was shown a second yellow card for a lunge on Bukayo Saka.
In the end, Arsenal and Sporting needed penalties to find a winner in the first ever competitive spot-kick shootout at the Emirates Stadium.
Gabriel Martinelli saw his spot kick saved, while the visitors netted all of theirs to go through to the next round at the Gunners’ expense.
In other news, Antonio Conte will replace ‘fantastic’ Tottenham player when injured star is back
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