Four Takeaways From Arsenal’s Slump-Busting Win in Lisbon

The Gunners won the quarterfinal first leg thanks to a late Kai Havertz goal.

Arsenal won despite coming second in the stats. | Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images

Arsenal will fancy their chances of making the Champions League semifinals for the second year running, after Tuesday’s smash and grab win over Sporting CP in Lisbon.

Sporting were the better team at the Estádio José Alvalade, yet it was a late goal from Arsenal substitute Kai Havertz—created out of seemingly nothing as Gabriel Martinelli spotted a run in the penalty area—that decided the first leg.

Arsenal did have the ball in the net through Martín Zubimendi against the run of play earlier on, but an offside call went against Viktor Gyökeres to disallow it.

Still, Mikel Arteta’s team hold a significant aggregate advantage going into next week’s second leg at the Emirates Stadium, with Sporting needing to win in north London even to force extra time.

---

Arsenal Halt Negative Momentum

What crisis? pic.twitter.com/7yKC2Lqw2b

— Sports Illustrated FC (@SI_FootballClub) April 7, 2026

Arsenal’s 2006–07 campaign remains the ultimate example of the wheels falling off a season.

In the space of 10 days and in three successive matches, the Gunners lost the League Cup final to Chelsea, were knocked out of the FA Cup by Blackburn Rovers, and then suffered Champions League elimination at the hands of PSV Eindhoven.

That couldn’t be exactly replicated here. But, given that the Gunners’ last two matches were losses in the League Cup final and the FA Cup, the similarities were still obvious.

Now, although two competitions have gone and the hypothetical quadruple has halved, Arsenal have demonstrated some critical resilience and mental strength.

A defeat in Lisbon—where every prior Champions League visitor to the Alvalade this season had been beaten—would have not only ramped up the pressure on turning things around in the second leg, but on the weekend’s Premier League clash with Bournemouth.

That match is still must-win to keep Manchester City at arm’s length, but Arsenal will automatically take more confidence and far fewer nerves into it than they would off the back of a loss.

---

---

David Raya: Matchwinner

David Raya was named player of the match by UEFA. | Alex Pantling/UEFA/Getty Images

Even a first-leg draw would have disappointed Sporting. The Portuguese hosts bettered Arsenal in expected goals, shot, shots on target, touches in the opposition box and big chances, every significant offensive statistic apart from the only one that counts: goals.

Maxi Araújo rattled the Arsenal crossbar—via the fingertips of Raya—just a few minutes after the match began, and the goalkeeper made four other saves that kept Sporting at bay.

He wasn’t the one scoring the decisive goal, but the Spaniard arguably was Arsenal’s matchwinner.

What good would a late goal have been had the Gunners already been 3–0 behind?

---

Viktor Gyökeres Comes Up Short

No impact from Viktor Gyökeres. | Diogo Faria Reis/MB Media/Getty Images

Viktor Gyökeres owes his career to Sporting. The Swede was 25 and had never played in a top-flight league when the club took a chance on him in 2023. Two years with them saw him rack up 97 goals, paving the way to join Arsenal last summer, and he would have wanted to do well on his return.

But Gyökeres hasn’t found it easy to carry on that kind of output, even if six Premier League goals in his last eight appearances in the competition certainly represents improvement.

He didn’t score in either leg of the round of 16 against Bayer Leverkusen, despite playing 164 of the 180 minutes, nor has he so far in this round.

Paying $85 million for a striker means you expect goals and impact on the biggest stage. With a single shot in 90 minutes, accounting for 0.03 xG, 17 touches and seven successful passes, isn’t enough. Gyökeres isn’t an Erling Haaland-type, whose influence is typically limited to applying a finish in the penalty area. His style includes greater all-round involvement, building and creating, as well as getting into the box, and it isn’t happening.

---

Rice, Gabriel Boost Important

Declan Rice is back from a recent short absence. | Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC/Getty Images

Sporting tested Arsenal from the earliest moments, and it felt important that the Gunners had both Declan Rice and Gabriel in their ranks. Grit was what was required, and these are two of Arsenal’s grittiest and most reliable performers.

Rice has been playing through injuries in recent months and was released from last month’s England squad upon being assessed by national team staff. He was then left out for the Southampton cup tie, but his name was a welcome sight for fans in this one.

Gabriel had been a doubt after losing to the Saints, limping out of the sorry defeat. With wounds not healed from William Saliba’s injury absence in the closing stages of 2022–23 coinciding with the collapse that lost the Premier League title, fearing the worst could have been forgiven.

---