Arsenal Must Not Put a Foot Wrong in the Second Leg, Saka Says after Scoring in Europa Draw at Benfica

Bukayo Saka warned his Arsenal team-mates that they cannot put a foot wrong when they face Benfica in the second leg of their Europa League last-32 tie after his goal earned them a draw in the first game in Rome.

Played in Rome’s Olympic Stadium instead of Portugal for Covid-19 reasons, the Gunners were the better side but failed to take a number of first-half chances before falling behind to a Pizzi penalty.

However, they responded quickly with Cedric Soares crossing low for England winger Saka to level from close range.

The England winger is now determined not to allow his side to suffer the same European fate as last season, when a goal in the last minute of extra time saw Olympiakos advance to the last 16 on away goals at Arsenal’s expense.

“It is about managing the game,” Saka told BT Sport. “Last year when we went out to Olympiakos we conceded a silly goal. We can’t put a foot wrong because if we do we will make it difficult for ourselves.

“We had a lot of chances tonight. We dominated the whole game. They got a lucky penalty which I don’t think was. We had to react well.

“We got a goal back and could have gone on to win it. It’s not the worst result, we got an away goal.”

Benfica’s penalty was awarded when Emile Smith Rowe was adjudged to have handled in blocking Diogo Goncalves’ cross, with Pizzi converting to take his goal tally to a tournament-high of seven.

Fresh from scoring a hat-trick against Leeds in the Premier League, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang had two big chances in the game but inexplicably side-footed wide from close range with the score at 0-0 and then dragged an effort off target at 1-1.

In positive news for the Gunners, left-back Kieran Tierney and forward Gabriel Martinelli made welcome returns from injury as second-half substitutes.

The second leg is in Athens in a week’s time, sandwiched between two big league fixtures for the Gunners – the visit of Manchester City to the Emirates and a trip to Leicester.

Arsenal have improved in recent weeks, both in performances and results, but such was their inconsistent start to the season, the Europa League probably represents their most realistic route back into the Champions League.

The Gunners’ starting XI suggests Mikel Arteta agrees, with the Spaniard naming the same side that began Sunday’s impressive 4-2 win over Leeds at the Emirates.

Remarkably, it is the first time Arsenal have named an unchanged XI since September 2018 but it brought with it some of Sunday’s attacking fluency, especially down the right, with Hector Bellerin a constant and energetic menace.

What it lacked, though, was similar lethal finishing, most notably from the weekend’s hat-trick hero Aubameyang.

Excuses can be made for why his second chance was spurned, with it being at a tight angle, but not his first.

Bellerin’s low cross laid the strike on a plate for the forward but somehow he found a way to put his shot past the post instead of in the net where bit belonged.

Thankfully, Saka was sharp enough to finish when required from a similar distance at the other end, the goal his 10th in a Gunners shirt and further evidence of his rapidly growing importance to Arteta’s side.

Since the start of last season, the 19-year-old is the youngest Premier League player to have scored 10+ goals and made 10+ assists across all competitions.

“We were very dominant and created some big chances,” Arteta told BT Sport. “We have to be more ruthless. It was disappointing the way we conceded the goal. We gave them the ball then it was 1-1 and all to play for.

“We conceded a corner then from the corner we did not react quick enough and conceded the penalty. Looking at it it’s difficult to judge. We had a great reaction and scored a great goal.

“We tried to maintain the level. Both teams dropped in the last 20 minutes. But overall we should leave the ground with more.”

The Benfica line-up contained a number of former Premier League players, including ex-Tottenham defender Jan Vertonghen and mercurial midfielder Adel Taraabt, who entertained and infuriated fans of Tottenham and QPR in equal measure.

The Moroccan’s only contribution of note came midway through the second half in the form of a driving run and incisive pass to find Everton, who proceeded to curl a shot just past the far top corner of Bernd Leno’s goal.

No further major chances followed for either side, leaving it all to play for in Greece.

Pizzi is the first Portuguese player to score at least seven goals in a single European campaign for Benfica since Eusebio, who did so during the 1970/71 European Cup Winners’ Cup campaign (also 7).

Since the start of the 2019-20 Europa League campaign, only Bruno Fernandes (10) has scored more goals in the competition than Benfica’s Pizzi (9).

Pizzi’s opener from the penalty spot was Benfica’s 100th goal in the Europa League, one of just eight clubs to reach this total since the inaugural season of the competition back in 2009-10.

Arsenal have managed to progress from 13 of their previous 16 knockout ties in major Uefa competition when either drawing or winning the first leg away from home, though one of their eliminations did come at this exact stage of the Europa League last season vs Olympiakos.

Benfica remain unbeaten in each of their 26 Europa League matches at home (W20 D6) – this is at least 15 more home matches than any other team who is yet to lose a home game in the competition (Chelsea, 11).

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