Quote Originally Posted by IBK View Post
Not sure about this. We were favourites for this tie, and their tactics nullified our threat. I think they did so for our set pieces also, but even if this wasn't the case, reducing a team like Arsenal to set pieces for any goal threat speaks to effective tactics for me. Shithousing and preventing any cohesion going forwards is a game plan - and let's remember they created the only chances from open play in this game - and playing on the break was also part of their game plan. If we see the 2 legs as two halves of a game, then they would have been the happier team even had it remained at 0-0 as it should have done, so I don't think we can say their tactics would have come to nothing. We are an inexperienced team and manager in the CL, and I think this showed. I hope the manager has an answer for the return leg.
Given that this season in the league, we have tended to score more goals in the second half (23-35) I think we could say we would be reasonably content with a 0-0 if we consider the tie rather than the individual fixture. In my mind we are still favourites for the tie….we have played Portuguese opposition at the Emirates 7 times, won five of those matches and Porto have never scored in their three previous visits to us let alone got a result….(11 goals to none for them). That’s not to say they can’t get a draw or a sucker punch win. But like Bayern Munich against Lazio, we are still favourites.