Odegaard claims Brentford have helped Arsenal prepare for Porto's 'dark arts'

11 March 2024 , 18:23

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Martin Odegaard is confident Arsenal will be able to cope with Porto's underhanded tactics (Image: Arsenal FC via Getty Images)

Arsenal skipper Martin Odegaard claimed taming Brentford’s “time wasting” tactics was the perfect preparation for Porto’s dark arts in the Champions League.

Mikel Arteta ’s side lost 1-0 in Portugal last month in a game featuring 36 fouls and the ball in play less than 50 minutes. It is the Gunners’ only defeat in nine games - and they recorded an eighth consecutive Premier League win with a late winner against Brentford at the weekend.

And Odegaard said: “It was a really good practice for this game coming up. 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 we did that brilliantly. It was really good practice for another big game and we did really well.

“The game against Porto was one where the ball was out of play a lot and a lot of stop and start and restarts and all this. You saw that also against Brentford and we dealt with it in a brilliant way.

“We already showed in that game what we learned in Porto, hopefully we can do that even better [against Porto]. 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.”

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Arteta admitted his team were not streetwise in the first leg but claimed Porto had “no intention of playing”. Portuguese boss Sergio Conceicao responded: "They wanted to play, we wanted to win."

The Gunners boss replied: “There is no interpretation. Those are strong words.” The referee is Frenchman Clement Turpin, who took charge of three games at the World Cup and Liverpool ’s 2022 Champions League defeat to Real Madrid in Paris.

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Neil McLeman