Mikel Arteta forced to restrain Leandro Trossard and accused of insulting Porto boss as tempers flare after Arsenal win
MIKEL ARTETA had to restrain Leandro Trossard at the final whistle and was then accused of making vile insults at the Porto boss as Arsenal’s penalty shoot-out win flared up.
Winger Trossard looked in no mood to back down when Porto players confronted him following the Gunners’ 4-2 triumph on penalties.
Arsenal boss Arteta had to grip the scorer round the waist in the middle of the Emirates pitch and steer him away.
But tensions soared again later when Porto chief Sergio Conceicao accused his counterpart of “insulting my family” during the tie.
Both managers had earlier been booked for protesting over second-half decisions in normal time ahead of a goalless extra half-hour.
And the flare-up at the end typified a night where the Gunners made the quarter-finals for the first time since 2010 in fiery fashion.
Trossard had struck brilliantly on 41 minutes to give Arsenal a 1-0 win and a 1-1 draw on aggregate.
David Raya’s two shootout saves then sunk the combative Portuguese visitors.
And after confrontations between players on the pitch Conceicao made his astonishing claims.
The Portuguese boss, who appeared to give Arteta a dressing down on the pitch afterwards, said: “Arteta turned to the bench during the game and insulted my family in Spanish.
“I told him that the person he insulted is no longer among us.
“Let him worry about training his team, which has more than enough quality to play a lot better”.
Arteta strongly denied making any insults towards the Porto boss. But he defended his testy moments, mainly with officials, by saying: “A lot is at stake, you defend your team at every decision.
“You want every decision to go your way and that’s part of the game.”
And as he focused on a triumph that left him “so proud” he suggested an electric atmosphere sparked by home fans did the trick.
The Spaniard said: “We love them, the energy they gave us helped us the whole game. They made us win – as simple as that.”
On reaching the last eight made Arteta said he was “so happy”, adding: “It’s been 14 years, a long time for a club like Arsenal.”
And referring to Raya’s shootout heroics, he added: “We had to really dig in today and find the magic moment that we found.
“It’s really difficult to play against them because they are a really competitive team, a really good side.”
In fact, Trossard summed up Arsenal’s relief as he tweeted celebratory pictures of himself on X alongside the words: “QUARTER-FINALS!!”
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