Arsenal boss: Europa League exit is a huge shock

Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta described his team's exit from the round of sixteen of the Europa League at the hands of Sporting Lisbon as a "huge shock" but called on his players to quickly regain their poise and focus on chasing the Premier League title. And completed Sporting Lisbon Portuguese contract qualifiers for the quarter-finals in the European Football League, after winning 5 / 3 on penalties at home to Arsenal England yesterday evening, in the second leg of the round of 16 of the continental competition.

The two teams resorted to playing extra time of half an hour divided equally into two halves according to the tournament regulations, after drawing 3/3 on aggregate in the home and away matches. The original time of the second leg, which was held at the Emirates Stadium in the British capital, London, ended in a 1-1 draw, while the first leg, which took place in the Portuguese capital Lisbon last week, ended in a 2-2 draw.

Arsenal took the initiative to score through a shot from inside the penalty area for Swiss star Granit Xhaka in the 19th minute, after following the shot of his Brazilian teammate Gabriel Martinelli, which bounced off the hands of Spaniard Antonio Adan, the visitors' goalkeeper. In the second half, Sporting Lisbon equalized through Pedro Gonçalves in the 62nd minute, with a wonderful shot from the middle of the pitch, where he set the ball down (loeb), taking advantage of Arsenal goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale from his goal unnecessarily.

That did not change during extra time, which saw Uruguayan Manuel Augart of Sporting Lisbon sent off in the 119th minute, for receiving a second warning, and the two teams went to the penalty shootout, which ultimately smiled in favor of the Portuguese team. Asked how much shock he was feeling, Arteta replied: "Yes, it's a huge shock." "We really wanted to advance in the tournament and compete for the title, we tried for 120 minutes and during the penalty shootout, and it wasn't enough." "Looking at ourselves, it started hard by losing Tomi (Takehiro Tomiyasu) and (William) Saliba and that made it difficult to deal with the game because the changes were limited and some players couldn't play for the whole 90 minutes," he said.