Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard has asked his teammates to be prepared for a lot of time wasting in the second leg of their UEFA Champions League Round-of-16 clash against FC Porto on Tuesday night (March 12).
Three weeks back, Mikel Arteta’s Gunners suffered a shock 1-0 defeat to Porto in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League Round-of-16 meeting at the Estadio do Dragao in Portugal. Wendersen Galeno scored a gem of a goal from outside the box in injury time to seal the victory for the Primeira Liga unit.
Arsenal Must Deal With Porto’s Time-Wasting Tactics, Says Martin Odegaard
Arsenal will need to overturn the deficit at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday to proceed to the Champions League quarter-finals for the first time since 2010. Ahead of the game, Odegaard warned his teammates of Porto’s disruptive gameplay, urging them to be prepared for their ploys to waste time.
The Norwegian said (via GOAL):
“There are so many different things going on in each game. This game [against Porto] was one where the ball was out of play a lot. A lot of stop and start and restarts and all this. I think you saw that also against Brentford, and I think we dealt with it in a brilliant way. I think that was a good practice.
“We already showed in that game what we learned in Porto, hopefully, we can do that even better on Tuesday. First of all, we want to play our game. We don’t want to focus too much on them and what they are doing; we want to play our game and that’s the main thing.”
Odegaard concluded by adding:
“We had to deal with a lot of different situations, a lot of time-wasting. We had to control our emotions the whole game and I think we did that brilliantly.”
How Did Odegaard Perform In The First Leg?
Odegaard had a night to forget in the Champions League Round-of-16 first leg. He lost possession cheaply, failed to create goalscoring opportunities, and was an easy prey to Porto defenders, who starved him of space.
Over the course of the game, Odegaard only had two shots — neither of which landed on target. He also misplaced both of his crosses, ceded possession four times, and lost five of eight ground duels.
Arteta will need a much better performance from the former Real Madrid man if Arsenal are to proceed to the last eight at Porto’s expense on Tuesday.
