{"id":13203,"date":"2026-04-07T22:58:04","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T21:58:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=13203"},"modified":"2026-04-11T03:13:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T02:13:27","slug":"stodgy-stuff-it-ended-well-though","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=13203","title":{"rendered":"Stodgy Stuff. It Ended Well Though!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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We got out of Lisbon with an extremely handy one-nil to the Arsenal thanks to a late bit of quality from Gabriel Martinelli and Kai Havertz, the substitutes combining to find us an injury time winner that we probably deserved on the balance of play but that did not look like coming right up until it did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was not a classic by any means, but we got the result we wanted and that was all that mattered ahead of a huge game in the PL on the weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our lineup looked good, and we began with some possession in defence, just to draw the sting from the early whistles of a crowd who were well up for this one. And well might they be. The match was barely five minutes old when Sporting\u2019s Irish centre-back O\u2019 Diomande played the best pass I have seen all season. With the outside of his right foot, he knocked it through our whole team, bending it between Saliba and White, with the perfect pace to slow up in time for the onrushing Araujo to take it on and smash a shot that looked to be heading in until a fingertip from Raya took it onto the bar. Great save, but the through ball was sensational. It was Sporting\u2019s magic moment, but they failed to capitalise. When ours came at the other end of the ninety, we nailed it. Fine margins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We slowly took control of the first half, having a lot of the ball, playing lots of passes in their half, but not creating a huge amount (I should have this sentence saved to speed-dial). Madueke hit the bar from a corner, but I think European VAR might have disallowed it for a slight push from Gabriel on their keeper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the game trundled on, I considered that I don\u2019t much enjoy playing Portuguese teams because they whinge about everything. I don\u2019t enjoy watching them foul our players and then make the diving gesture. I don\u2019t much enjoy listening to their fans cry for a foul any time two players make any type of contact. There was plenty of that tonight, and I look forward to the return leg where our fans will be making the noise (although not complaining when the ref gives the opposition free kicks that we can all see are justified!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We came closest in the thirteenth minute when an Odegaard free kick from wide looked to be on its way only for Diomande to get a head to it. The ball bounced down and out for a corner, but the big defender will have been relieved it didn\u2019t hit the net. It could have gone anywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apropos of nothing much, although it was one of my standout first-half observations, Trincao has good hair and a dashing moustache. He looks like he\u2019d make a fine swordsman as well as a tidy midfielder. Needless to say, the actual football was not thrilling. Unfortunately, this continued into the second half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ben \u2018Jammin\u2019 White gave us a mixed bag, mixing some good actions with some moments when he looked either off the pace or, at least, out of sync with his teammates. Still, I assume that he will get more match fit and then every little thing is gonna be alright. Similar from Odegaard, but the minutes will have done him some good, unless it turns out that he picked up an injury. He went down briefly and came off soon after but took his place on the bench and seemed okay. Fingers crossed, as we need him so much to knit our game together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trossard was rusty. Rice full of running and duel winning but not at his best going forward. Zubi looked like some rest has helped, but we need to keep him as fresh as possible as he\u2019s so important. We had the ball in the net in the 64th<\/sup> minute after he crafted lovely finish, but it was ruled out because Gyokeres was clearly offside in the buildup on what was an underwhelming return to a ground where he has scored 4,139 goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Madueke had an interesting battle with Araujo, which probably ended about even. I don\u2019t know how the defender avoided a yellow for a long series of fouls, but Sporting fans seemed to think Calafiori was given too much leeway, so maybe that ended up even. (Although the ref was good overall). Noni went on the outside too often, and his last action of the night was to finally cut inside and whip a dangerous ball past Trossard at the back post before they were both subbed with fifteen minutes remaining for Martinelli and Dowman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We had spells where our press was effective, but we did not turn it into an advantage. We were the better side, but they were in the game and what actual chances there were fell pretty evenly. It looked like it was going to peter out goalless but Sporting wanted to find a winner. Luis Suarez showed some neat skill to get past Calafiori and put a good cross in, but Raya made an excellent save down low from Geny\u2019s header. He made another double save when he blocked a low shot that squirmed out to the feet of some lad but our Spanish stopper made himself big, blocked the shot and gathered it in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At that point, it did not look like we were the side more likely to get a winner, but that\u2019s what happened and we will take it all day long. Martinelli dribbled around two players, chipped a curling cross into the box where the intelligent Havertz had ghosted into space, and the German took the ball down immaculately in front of him and finished exactly how we wish he\u2019d finish all the time. It was easily our best piece of play all night and deserved to win us the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So\u2026 we kept a clean sheet, got the win to take back to the Emirates, and got a look at a side who we should be beating at home next week to go through to a second consecutive semifinal. All good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, all eyes back on the Premier League.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until next time, \u2018holics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We got out of Lisbon with an extremely handy one-nil to the Arsenal thanks to a late bit of quality from Gabriel Martinelli and Kai Havertz, the substitutes combining to find us an injury time winner that we probably deserved on the balance of play but that did not look like coming right up until […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13203"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13203"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13203\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13206,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13203\/revisions\/13206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}