Arsenal and Porto fought at the Emirates tonight as The Gunners tried to overcome a 2-1 first leg deficit. Arsenal were the favorites to qualify and to win this game despite their first leg loss away to Porto, but for anyone wanting to back the outsiders the prices went as high as 5/1, with Arsenal nailed down at 4/7.
Arsenal began as the odds had predicted and with just ten minutes gone they opened the scoring. Arshavin chased a through ball but failed to get on the end of it as the ball bounced clear and straight into the path of Bendtner who slipped into an open goal to put Arsenal 1-0 up, making up for the hatful of chances he missed over the weekend.
Bendtner added a second with just twenty-five minutes gone. Arshavin got the ball out wide and jinked his way through three defenders before driving the ball across goal where the tall Dane was waiting for a simple tap-in.
Porto were diabolical in the first half but finally began to play in the second half and came close to pulling a goal back on the hour mark when a header from a corner was cleared off the line. Nasri sealed Porto’s fate minutes later though with a super goal. He ran from out wide, twisted and turned his way through three defenders and then smacked a shot passed the ‘keeper.
Arsenal continued to run rampant and two minutes after the third they added a fourth. A quick counteract was utilized by Arshavin who sent Eboue clear of the defense and watched the substitute slip the ball into the net. Bendtner took his hat trick before the end of the game after slotting in a penalty as Arsenal easily skipped through to the next round with a 6-2 aggregate score.
Goals were also plentiful in the other Champions League game of the night were Fiorentina hosted Bayern Munich. The first leg of this game had also ended 2-1, with Bayern the victors on that day.
Vargas kicked things off for Fiorentina with a goal from a very tight angle before Jovetic added a second in the second half, his finish completing a fantastic piece of one-touch football from the Italians.
Bayern Munich weren’t beaten yet though and they squared up the aggregate score when van Bommel scored a long range placed shot. Just a few minutes after that Jovetic added his second and Fiorentina’s fourth but less than a minute later Robben smashed in Bayern Munch’s second of the night as we saw three goals in five minutes!
Robben’s performance was key tonight for Bayern as this game ended 3-2 to Fiorentina on the night and 4-4 on aggregate, enough to send the Germans through on away goals.