Arsenal Need More Savviness In Champions League

Declan Rice has urged Arsenal to show more “savviness” after admitting their Champions League inexperience cost them in Wednesday’s round-of-16 defeat to Porto.

Arsenal were beaten 1-0 in the first leg at Estadio do Dragao as Galeno curled in a stunning 94th-minute winner following a passage of play in which the visitors made several individual mistakes as they tried to see the game out.

From Arsenal’s starting line-up in Portugal, only Kai Havertz had ever played in a Champions League knockout game, although Rice has previously won the Europa Conference League and he lined up alongside Bukayo Saka when England lost the Euro 2020 final to Italy.

Arsenal will hope to rescue the tie at Emirates Stadium in three weeks’ time but Rice believes lessons must be learned if they are to reach the quarterfinals for the first time since 2010.

He said: “I think the last minute is probably a bit of inexperience. Just probably having a bit more savviness, in terms of [it’s] the 93rd minute, you look up at the clock, it’s 0-0, we gave a ball away on the edge of our box twice and then he bends one in the top bins.

“So we have got to have a bit of savviness to see out the game, because if you can’t win, definitely don’t lose — especially in a knockout game. But look, we are still positive. It is half-time in a two-legged tie and we will be ready for the next leg.”

Arsenal failed to register a shot on target in a game for the first time since January 2022, an occurrence even more surprising given they had scored 11 unanswered goals in their previous two Premier League matches away at West Ham and Burnley.

“Not every game is going to be fives and sixes,” Rice added.

“You are going to come up against teams who are watching us and seeing what they can do to stop us.

“Tonight I don’t think we had a shot on target, so it is tough to take, it is tough to hear that. But we are really positive still, there is a real positivity around the place at the minute.