The Champions League anthem had barely faded when Estádio José Alvalade made its intentions clear. “You are my life,” read the tifo, and for the first half-hour Sporting’s players ran as if they’d taken that personally.
Arsenal, still nursing the bruises of back-to-back domestic cup exits, arrived as the only unbeaten side left in this competition. They also arrived into a storm.
Sporting strike first – the woodwork rattles
Within six minutes, Luis Suárez had already felt the weight of William Saliba in midfield, and Arsenal’s back line knew they were in a game. Then came the first real jolt.
Diomande split Arsenal open with a gorgeous, outside-of-the-boot pass, threading Pedro Araújo in behind after he beat the offside trap. The full-back tore through, laced his shot past David Raya – and hammered the ball against the crossbar. Only the faintest touch from Raya diverted it there, a crucial fingertip that stopped the stadium erupting.
The chance didn’t settle Arsenal. It energised Sporting.
The hosts swarmed in a 5-2-3 shape out of possession, snapping at Arsenal’s attempts to build from the back. Catamo forced Raya into a low save from a tight angle on 10 minutes, while Araújo, relentless down the flank, kept asking questions from distance and in behind. The Portuguese side, unbeaten in 17 at home coming into the night, played like a team utterly convinced that run would continue.
Arsenal wobble, then grow into it
Mikel Arteta’s side tried to steady themselves with long spells of possession. Declan Rice dropped deep, Martin Zubimendi offered angles, Martin Ødegaard drifted into pockets. It looked neat. It didn’t look secure.
Raya’s distribution betrayed the nerves. One sliced ball skidded straight into Silva’s box, forcing the goalkeeper to raise a hand in apology as Sporting sensed vulnerability. Ben White and Saliba had to sweep up more than once as Suárez hovered between the lines, waiting for a runner.
Yet Arsenal’s quality started to seep through.
Ødegaard began to find his range from set pieces, whipping in a dangerous free-kick from the right that left goalkeeper Franco Israel Silva stranded as it bounced awkwardly through the area and out for a corner. From another dead ball, Arsenal worked it patiently across the pitch, only for Ødegaard’s attempted cross to be blocked when he couldn’t quite lift it over the first man.
The visitors’ best spell came from a corner that took an age to be taken. Noni Madueke, booed and whistled as he waited, finally sent in a vicious inswinger that crashed against the crossbar, Silva flapping underneath it. The ball dropped to Ødegaard, who snatched at the rebound and miscued. It ran through to Leandro Trossard, whose low drive skidded wide. A warning for Sporting, and a glimpse of Arsenal’s threat when they raised the tempo.
Silva, already unconvincing from an earlier free-kick, looked shaken by that sequence. Arsenal sensed it, but lacked the precision to punish him.
Araújo vs Madueke: a duel with teeth
One battle defined much of the half: Araújo against Madueke. The Uruguayan full-back flew into challenges, fouled Madueke repeatedly, and still found the energy to surge forward. He tried to nutmeg White just outside the Arsenal box, failed, then clattered the defender trying to win it back. Moments later, he was bombing on again, only to misplace a key pass to Suárez after a clever run from deep.
Madueke, for his part, drew free-kicks and corners, but too often dallied at the crucial moment. When Inácio gifted him possession in his own half, the winger hesitated instead of firing in an early cross, allowing Araújo to recover and snuff out the danger. Arsenal’s right flank felt like a live wire that never quite sparked.
Gyökeres returns, but the script belongs elsewhere
This was billed as the unofficial Viktor Gyökeres derby, the Swede back on his old turf leading Arsenal’s line. His first touch in the Sporting box came on 11 minutes. He held it up, waited for support, and then watched as Araújo nipped in and stole it away.
It summed up his opening half-hour: involved, willing, but largely marshalled by Diomande and Inácio, while Suárez, his successor in Lisbon, dropped off and stitched moves together with more influence in the final third.
Midfield stakes and a restless backdrop
Off the pitch, the mood around Arsenal had already been tested. Supporters questioned players withdrawing from international duty only to start here. Others pinned their hopes on Rice and Zubimendi dominating the midfield. Arteta spoke of identity, of behaviours, of staying true to what had carried them this far.
On the pitch, that identity flickered rather than blazed.
Arsenal moved the ball, tried to draw Sporting out, but too often their attacks fizzled at the edge of the box. Calafiori, the left-back, even popped up on the right inside the area at one point, only to roll a cross into empty grass. The patterns were there; the incision was not.
Sporting, by contrast, mixed structure with risk. They sat in when they had to, then exploded forward through Araújo, Catamo and Trincão whenever Arsenal’s line loosened. They carried the feel of a side who know exactly who they are, especially at home, especially on these nights.
A tie finely balanced – but whose nerve holds?
By the half-hour mark, the game had already offered its outline: Sporting’s aggression and invention, Arsenal’s attempts to reassert control after a bruising fortnight. Morita’s yellow card for a late follow-through on Trossard, despite winning the ball, underlined the edge creeping into every duel.
Arsenal remain unbeaten in Europe this season, and they still carry the calm of a Premier League leader who believes the domestic race is theirs to lose. Sporting, though, have turned this stadium into a fortress, with five Champions League wins already here, including that wild 5-0 comeback against Bodø/Glimt in the last round.
One side is chasing validation on the continent. The other is desperate to prove that its resurgence is no longer a local story.
If this frantic opening is any guide, the second leg at the Emirates will not just be about tactics or technique. It will be about nerve – who still trusts their identity when the margins get even thinner.
