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86 mins: Sporting bring on Giorgios Vagiannidis and Rafael Nel, with Quaresma and Trincao coming off. It’s do or die now for the Portuguese.
85 mins: Close! Great work from Jesus to spin his man on the left, and he gets into the area, convinces the keeper that he’s going to cross and then shoots, from a very acute angle. Not a terrible idea, but the execution isn’t there. Goal kick.
84 mins: Arsenal hit the post! Dowman takes a right-wing corner, Trossard meets it way beyond the far post, and really hitting the post was probably the best he could do. And he does it. So that’s good.
80 mins: The free-kick drops at the feet of Havertz, who’s facing the wrong way and backheels into a defender.
80 mins: Araujo is booked for fouling Dowman. Not a lot of contact, but what there was was late and of the studs-on-foot variety.
79 mins: Arsenal take off Eze and Martinelli and bring on Gabriel Jesus and Leandro Trossard.
78 mins: Some substitutional news: Sporting have brought on Geovany Quenda, Daniel Braganca and Joao Simoes, and taken off Catamo, Goncalves and Morita.
77 mins: Their corner leads to another corner, which leads to the referee giving a free-kick for a foul on the goalkeeper, who nobody touches.
75 mins: It’s increasingly fraught. Sporting must score. Arsenal would quite like to but don’t need to and aren’t sure how. The referee isn’t sure what he ought to be doing. Arsenal have a corner.
Updated at 16.34 EDT
72 mins: Havertz goes down on the left. The referee gives Sporting a free-kick.
70 mins: The match has turned a bit bad-tempered in the last few minutes, and the referee decides he needs to stamp it out and can identify the person behind it. Mikel Arteta is booked.
68 mins: Raya catches Catamo’s cross. “Arsenal famously used to train their back four by connecting them with a long rope,” writes Justin Kavanagh. “These days they look like the whole team is tangled up in a rope tied to both feet stopping anything that looks like spontaneous movement (with the occasional exception of Eze).”
65 mins: Sporting attack, Catamo’s shot deflects towards Goncalves, and he goes down with Mosquera’s hands on his back. He seemed very keen to fall, and was possibly falling before Mosquera made contact, but he probably was pushed. No penalty.
63 mins: Dowman is now on, and Madueke off.
On comes Max Dowman to perk up Arsenal. Photograph: Simon Dael/ShutterstockShare
Updated at 16.25 EDT
62 mins: It looks like Madueke’s night is going to end here. And cometh the hour, cometh the (Dow)man.
60 mins: Madueke runs into Goncalves on the left touchline, near halfway. The referee waves play on, and Sporting end up with a corner. Madueke, meanwhile, stays down. An email from Angus Chisholm: “‘Two different classes of games by two different classes of teams’ does ring true insofar as Bayern and Real Madrid have conceded eight (8) goals in three halves of football,” he notes. “Defending is a good and important skill in football and as long as Arsenal remain very good at it they’ll be in with a shout of winning any game, even if their currently blunt attack means they’ll be living on the edge more than they’d like.” Fair point.
58 mins: Now Madueke runs across the penalty area from the right, benefits from a lucky rebound off Hjulmand, ends up with a shooting chance from the left, and lashes it into the side netting.
Noni Madueke fires his effort wide. Photograph: Nick Potts/PAShare
Updated at 16.21 EDT
57 mins: Arsenal bring Kai Havertz on for Gyokeres, who has been poor.
56 mins: And, suddenly, promise! Madueke does well on the right, his cross is headed away but only as far as Martinelli, and he volleys high from the edge of the area.
55 mins: Arsenal toil on the left flank for a while, win and take a few throw-ins, and then cross blindly to a defender.
52 mins: Rui Silva catches the corner under little pressure. “We’re just so blunt in attack, although Sporting are defending well,” writes David Penney. “I feel a 0-0 is the best and most realistic outcome on Sunday, bar a scrappy goal from a corner.”
51 mins: Arsenal have a corner. Either Arsenal’s fans are still making a lot of noise or someone on the TV sound mixing desk is doing an exceptionally good job.
50 mins: Another Eze shot, this from 23 yards or so, hit with real venom but not real accuracy.
48 mins: Araujo is found on the left of the area, he cuts inside Mosquera and attempts a curler towards the far post, which refuses to curl.
46 mins: Within 25 seconds Arsenal have a shot, from the right foot of Eze, out on the right of the penalty area. It would have taken a catastrophic goalkeeping mistake for it to go in, and there isn’t one.
46 mins: Peeeeep! Arsenal get the ball back rolling.
The two teams emerge for the second half. No changes have been made to either of them.
A big 45 minutes for Arsenal and Mikel Arteta.
Photograph: Simon Dael/ShutterstockShare
Updated at 16.04 EDT
I’ve spent a fun few minutes catching up with the goals in tonight’s other game on TNT Sports’ X feed. It does rather feel that tonight is seeing two very different classes of game being played by two very different classes of teams.
“Why are Arsenal playing like it’s the last five minutes of a cup tie that they’re losing?” wonders Harry Christie. “They look frantic. Someone needs to remind them that they’re winning.” Big 10 minutes for Mikel Arteta, who’s got to remind his team how to keep and use the ball (against what has been, to be fair, a very vigorous, impressive press).
ShareHalf time: Arsenal 0-0 Sporting (1-0 on aggregate)
45+1 mins: And that is indeed that. It has been a decent game, but there’s been nothing to suggest I’m watching the European champions.
Updated at 15.49 EDT
45+1 mins: Eze, with what is probably the last meaningful kick of the half, sends a 20-yarder over the bar.
45+1 mins: Into stoppage time, of which there’ll be a single minute.
45 mins: And now Mbappe has made it 2-3 on the night and 4-4 on aggregate!
43 mins: Sporting hit the post! Araujo lifts the ball across goal from the left and into the path of Catamo, whose volley back across goal beats the keeper but not the woodwork! “It pains me in the US how sloppy Arsenal is,” writes Tom Gauthier. “Their attack is so disjointed I’m convinced they don’t spend any training time in the attack. It resembles watching an amateur youth game.”
Geny Catamo hits the post for Sporting. Arsenal are living on the edge. Photograph: Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 15.51 EDT
42 mins: It’s now 2-2 in tonight’s other Champions League game, between Bayern Munich and Real Madrid. Harry Kane has scored Bayern’s second equaliser on the night, and they lead 4-3 on aggregate.
40 mins: Two terrible passes: one from Raya to present the ball from Trincao, one from Trincao to present it right back again. Criminal not to turn that into a shot.