Arsenal players held their nerves and converted the penalties calmly, however, the visitors were unable to do the same. It was largely thanks to David Raya’s heroics.
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David Raya was the hero for Arsenal, as they overcame FC Porto in the second leg of the round-of-16 Champions League tie. The Gunners entered the contest with a 1-0 deficit after losing the first leg in Portugal last week. However, they did not take long to get back on level terms in the second leg when Leandro Trossard scored for Arsenal right before the break. However, the home side were unable to add to that tally.
Porto defended in a resolute manner, as the match raced to extra minutes before reaching the dreaded penalty shootout. Arsenal players held their nerves and converted the penalties calmly, however, the visitors were unable to do the same. It was largely thanks to David Raya’s heroics following his double goal save in the shootout. After helping Arsenal reach the quarter-final, Raya spoke about his delight with the win.
“It’s an incredible feeling, after everything we’ve done. We weren’t happy with the result over there and getting the result here, and we scored the goal that we needed to have the chance. I think we could have scored a few more, but credit to Porto as well, they played a really good game. They played their game and made things very difficult for us, but in the end, it went down to penalties and the players did their part, scored the goals and I was lucky enough to save two. I think it’s one of the biggest moments in my career, my whole career. I put it up there and hopefully there’s many more to come here,” Raya, quoted on Arsenal.com, said after the Champions League match.
The Spanish shot-stopper then spoke about what his side could learn from winning this match in such circumstances. He is confident that this will give them a big push. “I think [this win] is going to give us a big push and give us some experience and some learnings. We need to learn a lot of things as well; I thought we managed the game very well in the end which we didn’t do over there, so we’ll learn from that and take the positives and learn from the negatives as well,” he added.
Raya also had special praise reserved for the home supporters. He believed the fans played a big part in the penalty shootout success. “The fans have been fantastic; they’ve been fantastic for a long time. Especially today, we needed them. They made some noise and got us through spells in which we needed them. They were there for us, and we were there for them. We had the fans behind our goal as well and that put a lot of pressure on them and that worked for us. I think that helped us to win the penalty shootout,” he explained.
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