22 February 2024 , 10:06
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Porto's goalscoring hero Galeno has warned Arsenal that his side will again use the gameplan that saw them beat the Gunners in their second leg in three weeks.
The Portuguese side claimed a surprise win over the Premier League title challengers thanks to the Brazilian's injury-time strike. The hosts also restricted Mikel Arteta's side to zero shots on target.
The defeat leaves the Gunners with work to do if they are to progress to the quarter-finals of the Champions League for the first time since 2010. Arteta's men will host Porto at the Emirates Stadium in the second leg on 12 March.
And Arteta has now been told he has until then to come up with a solution to the game plan that led to his side's defeat on Wednesday. Galeno has urged his side to keep their focus and again work to frustrate their opponents in the second leg.
“The merit of my goal belongs to the whole team for everything we did in the 90 minutes. We worked well, defended well and the energy was there, on the pitch," Galeno said.
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"I had the opportunity to shoot and I was fortunate to score a great goal that gave us with the victory. The team wins with my goal and I'm glad I helped my team go home with the victory.
"Nothing is won, though. We’re going to London to try to do what we did here and be a compact team, defending well. We’re aiming at coming back home with a ticket to the quarter finals.”
Porto boss Sérgio Conceição drew up his side's successful game plan for Tuesday's win. The 49-year-old hailed his squad for delivering a 'perfect' performance having had little time to prepare.
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Galeno scored in injury time to hand Porto a win in the first leg (Getty Images)“We can’t forget we are halfway through the round, with 90 something minutes to go, but the players should be happy for what they have done," Conceição said after the win.
"We had little time to work, but we worked very focused, with a lot of determination and knowing the opponent's strengths, with our usual humility. We didn’t allow the opponent to explore situations where they are very strong.
"And the team perfectly interpreted the spaces we had to take to condition them. In addition, we also knew what we had to do to hurt the opponent. It was a high-level game, a Champions League game. Arsenal had more ball, but we were more dangerous.
“The wings are one of Arsenal's strengths and we did very well in getting the ball there. From the middle, we also conditioned them a lot. The players followed the strategy for this game perfectly.”
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