Losing on penalties, Arsenal left the Europa League

In the brainstorming series, the two teams succeeded in the first three rounds, with Martin Odegaard, Bukayo Saka, Leandro Trossard (Arsenal) and St Juste, Ricardo Esgaio, Goncalo Inacio (Sporting Lisbon).

The turning point came in the fourth series, when Arthur Gomes beat goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale, and Gabriel Martinelli shot to the bottom right corner and was saved by Antonio Adan. In the fifth round, Nuno Santos shot to the top right corner. Ramsdale guessed in the right direction but was unstoppable. That's enough to decide the match.

After successfully finishing, Santos and his teammates ran to the corner of the stands, where Sporting fans were cheering excitedly.

In history, this is the 23rd time Arsenal have to settle the match on the 11m mark, with 14 wins and nine losses. This is also the second time they have taken a penalty at home, after beating Rotherham 9-8 at their old home Highbury in the League Cup in October 2003.

A 3-5 penalty shootout defeat is the end of Arsenal's ambition to win the double title, as coach Mikel Arteta says, and they extend the streak of not winning the continental cup to 28 years. Historically, the "Gunners" have only won two European titles, including the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in the 1969-1970 season and the C2 Cup in the 1993-1994 season.

For the rest of the season, Arsenal will focus on the Premier League - where they lead with 66 points, five points ahead of Man City and are aiming for their first championship since the 2003-2004 unbeaten season. Meanwhile, Sporting won the last ticket to the quarter-finals of the Europa League, behind Leverkusen, Feyenoord, Juventus, Man Utd, Roma, Sevilla and Union SG.

Before the match, Arteta said this was Arsenal's biggest match in the continental arena in the past three years and wanted to enjoy it with his students. However, the host showed a lackluster performance when even finishing less than Sporting. After 120 minutes, the "Gunners" controlled the ball 53%, finished 13 times with nine shots on target, compared to 15 and 2 for the opponent.

The lucky 2-2 draw in the first leg forced coach Arteta to use a strong squad, except for Thomas Partey, Martin Ordegaard and Bukayo Saka. Striker Gabriel Jesus also made his first start after recovering from a knee injury from the 2022 World Cup.

Arsenal soon received a loss when Takehiro Tomiyasu and William Saliba respectively left the field with injuries in the first 21 minutes. The positive point is that the host opened the scoring between these two reluctant substitutions. In the 19th minute, Martinelli escaped to the right wing to receive Jorginho's long pass and then put his heart in the far corner and could not win against Adan. The ball bounced off to the right range for Xhaka to kick diagonally to hit the away team's net.

After that, Arsenal had difficulty with Sporting's defensive play. In the fourth minute, Manuel Ugarte picked up the ball from outside the penalty area and then finished in the far corner of the post. Early in the second half, Paulinho crossed to the near post from Esgaio's cross, but was saved by Ramsdale. An unexpected difference was made in the 62nd minute, Pedro Goncalves won the ball in the middle of the field after Jorginho's failed pass and then shot right from the center circle into the top corner, when Ramsdale could not keep up.

Losing the advantage, Arteta immediately launched Partey, Saka and Ordegaard onto the field. But Arsenal still could not score more and had to play extra time. Here, the host took the full initiative, with the best chance going to the striker to replace Leandro Trossard. But in the face-to-face, the Belgian striker hit goalkeeper Adan and sent the ball to the post.

In the 117th minute, Gabriel had two dangerous headers in a row, from the left wing and corner respectively, but both were saved on the goal line. Arsenal took the lead in the minutes that followed when Ugarte received a second yellow card for slicing down Partey. But the short remaining time was not enough to help "Gunners" create mutations from the advantage of numbers, and then fell in a series of "gunfights" from the 11m point.