Arsenal, the leaders of the Premier League, could not get past Sporting Lisbon to a 2-2 draw in the first leg of the Europa League round of 16.
Hidemasa Morita’s own goal in the 62nd minute rescued Arsenal’s equalizer ahead of the second leg in London next week and which will define the ticket to the quarterfinals.
Morita deflected Granit Xhaka’s long-distance shot into his own net.
Arsenal, fired up from the comeback to beat Bournemouth 3-2 in agony last Saturday, seized the initiative early on and took the lead with William Saliba’s goal. The French defender headed in a corner kick from Fabio Vieira to open the account in the 22nd.
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta made six changes to the kit that came out on Saturday. Defender Jakub Kiwior made his debut to form the central duo with Saliba.
Sporting leveled in an identical action by capitalizing on Arsenan’s fragility in their defensive block.
Gonçalo Inácio headed in a corner kick, 12 minutes after Saliba’s goal. It was Sporting’s first goal against Arsenal in their fifth match in European Cups.
Ten minutes after the restart, Sporting turned the score around when Paulinho scored from a rebound.
Also on Thursday, Roma took a firm step towards reaching the quarterfinals by beating Real Sociedad 2-0 at home. Stephan El Shaarawy and Marash Kumbulla scored the goals for the Italian side.
Bayer Leverkusen, led by Xabi Alonso, got the same income against Ferencváros. Kerem Demirbay and Edmond Tapsoba scored for the Germans against the visiting Hungarian.
In addition, Sven Michel’s last-minute goal gave Union Berlin a 3-3 draw against Union Saint-Gilloise of Belgium.
