Declan Rice dismissed theories that the surface contributed to Arsenal’s 1-0 loss against Porto, saying instead that the club needs to swiftly adjust to the various strategies employed by Champions League opponents.
Galeno’s long-range goal in the 94th minute proved to be the game-winning goal that ended the Gunners’ dominance in Wednesday night’s first-leg match in the round of 16.
Arsenal entered the game in the Premier League with a lot of momentum, but Porto’s resolute defence prevented them from scoring even a single goal.
Although Rice downplayed that specific criticism, he felt the ball zipped around the surface too quickly, if anything. Some spectators had complained that the ball seemed to hold up on the excessively moistened ground and slowed down Arsenal’s play.
When reporters asked if the pitch had been over-watered and played slowly, Rice responded, looking a little taken aback, “Do you know what, it was actually the opposite!”
The balls are rapped in, sort of. The ball is entirely distinct.
You have to adapt to the pitch’s extreme quickness, since the ball was travelling quickly off the surface.
“It may have seemed slow to those seated higher up, but I felt like the ball was traveling very quickly on the pitch.”
This season, Arsenal has dominated from set pieces but has found it difficult to apply pressure on Porto, who have won several free kicks on defensive set plays and go down extremely readily inside the box when Arsenal takes a corner.
They also significantly slowed down the game, so much so that only 51.7% of the match, according to Opta data, saw the ball in play, by far the lowest percentage of any of the previous 16 ties.
During West Ham’s long playoff runs in Europe, Rice saw a lot of dull, difficult games. He believes the Arsenal club will have to swiftly adjust to this in the Champions League.
Rice responded, “Yeah definitely, I think when you play the European teams obviously they’re going to play and be different to English sides,” when asked about the team’s lack of experience in such situations.
The referees are very different in Europe, where you really can’t get away with much. It involves gaining knowledge while working and identifying areas for improvement.
