Arsenal winger Leandro Trossard joined an exclusive club of Gunners players with his strike in their nervy Champions League last-16 second leg with Porto on Tuesday night.
Thanks to Gabriel Martinelli's absence with a foot injury, Trossard reprised his role on the left-hand side of the Arsenal attack, joining Kai Havertz and Bukayo Saka in an untouched front three.
Three weeks on from a 1-0 first-leg loss, where they failed to have a single shot on target, Arsenal once again struggled to unlock a compact Porto defence, marshalled by 41-year-old Pepe.
Joao Mario and Wendell were also earning their keep out wide - the latter did a magnificent job of neutralising Saka - but with 41 minutes gone, Trossard got the Gunners back on terms.
A neat passing sequence with Martin Odegaard saw the Gunners captain execute a perfect through ball to the Belgian, who kept his composure to pick out the far corner in front of the away end.
© Reuters
Trossard's effort at the Emirates Stadium saw the 29-year-old score for the third Champions League home game running, following previous strikes against PSV Eindhoven and Sevilla in the group stage.
Trossard was an unused substitute during the Gunners' 6-0 thrashing of Lens in November, meaning that he is now just the third player in Arsenal's history to score in each of their first three Champions League home games for the club.
Current teammate Saka was the second player to achieve the feat for the Gunners by netting against all of PSV, Lens and Sevilla in the group phase, eight years after Alexis Sanchez became the first Arsenal man to do so.
The Chilean attacker - now with Inter Milan at the age of 35 - netted against Galatasaray, Anderlecht and Borussia Dortmund in the 2014-15 group stage, before Arsenal crashed out in the last 16 to Monaco.
That loss on away goals marked the fifth of seven straight last-16 exits for the Gunners in the Champions League, a 14-year streak which Mikel Arteta's current crop snapped in a nerve-wracking penalty shootout on Tuesday evening.
© Reuters
As Declan Rice, Saka, Havertz and Odegaard all scored their penalties, Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya denied Wendell and Galeno from 12 yards as Arsenal made the last eight of Europe's premier tournament for the first time since the 2009-10 season.
Coincidentally, Porto were their last-16 opponents that year, and the Gunners are currently one of six teams in the pot for the quarter-final draw, a list which includes five behemoths in Real Madrid, Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester City and Bayern Munich.
The final spots in the last eight will be decided on Wednesday evening, as Inter Milan bid to hold onto a 1-0 aggregate lead over Atletico Madrid, while PSV and Borussia Dortmund's tie is on a knife-edge following a 1-1 draw in the first leg.
Arsenal's win over Porto was partially soured by accusations from Dragons head coach Sergio Conceicao that Arteta had insulted his family during the second leg, having refused a handshake from the Gunners boss at full time.
Arteta was quizzed on the incident in his post-match press conference, but the Spaniard declined to comment, and Arsenal have reportedly denied Conceicao's version of events.
No Data Analysis info
