‘Turned to the bench…insulted my family in Spanish’: Porto Manager accuses Arsenal’s Mikel Arteta after Champions League clash
On Tuesday during the Champions League Round Of 16 game between Arsenal and Porto, there was a heated exchange after the former’s won 4-1 penalties at the Emirates.
“Mikel Arteta (Arsenal manager) turned to the bench during the game and insulted my family in Spanish. In the end, I told him that the person he insulted is no longer among us.” would reveal Porto boss Conceicao after the game in a Post-match press conference.
Conceicao would also suggest Arteta should worry about his own and their training. “Let him worry about training his team, which has more than enough quality to play a lot better,” he would say.
When Arteta was asked about the exchange after the game he denied to comment on it. In addition to this, the Gooners boss would also say Porto had “no intention of playing” because of the low-block tactic they would adhere to in the game.
Conceicao would hit back at the comments and would say “It’s an opinion. They wanted to play, we wanted to win.”
Into quarterfinals after 14-years
Leandro Trossard’s first-half goal made it 1-1 on aggregate after Porto had edged the first leg, but Arsenal could not conjure a winner in normal and extra time before they triumphed 4-2 on penalties.
It is the first time the north Londoners have been in the quarter-finals since 2010, after which they suffered seven successive exits in the last-16 before a six-season absence from Europe’s elite club competition.
“A magic night. We expected a really tough opponent. It’s very difficult to generate momentum and that’s credit to (Porto),” Arteta said.
“It’s a huge experience for us. We had to do it as well through penalties. Credit to (goalkeeper) David (Raya) who had some difficult moments to start but showed incredible determination and stood up and got rewarded.”
Loanee Raya had returned to the starting lineup after being unable to play against his host club Brentford on Saturday as Arsenal won an eighth successive Premier League match to move top of the table with 10 games left.
