Lisbon, April 8 – Kai Havertz scored in the final minutes to give Arsenal a one-goal lead over Sporting CP as their UEFA Champions League quarter-final tie heads to London next Wednesday.
The second leg of the tie at Emirates Stadium will determine who will advance to the semi-finals to face either Atletico Madrid or Barcelona.
The first half ended goalless, although both teams had hit the crossbar early on.
Sporting's Maximiliano Araújo was the first to threaten, racing onto Ousmane Diomande's excellent pass in the sixth minute, but his powerful left-footed shot was deflected onto the crossbar by David Raya.
Arsenal's chance came nine minutes later – Noni Madueke rattled the woodwork directly from an inswinging corner before Martin Odegaard shot wide from the rebound.
Chances remained scarce in the second half until the closing stages when Havertz, less than ten minutes after Geny Catamo had tested Raya with a close-range header, guided in the winner from Gabriel Martinelli's excellent set-up.
The introduction of Max Dowman in the 76th minute also gave Arsenal fans reason to celebrate, as the young forward became the youngest-ever player to feature in a Champions League quarter-final at 16 years and 97 days old.
Kai Havertz told Amazon Prime, "Scoring a late goal is always nice, especially in front of the fans. There is still a lot of work to be done next week, but we take the result."
Mikel Arteta, Arsenal manager, said, "I'm very happy. To win away from home in the quarter-finals of the Champions League against a team that hasn't lost for so long at home is very difficult."
Rui Borges, Sporting coach, told UEFA, "It's frustrating. It's natural to feel a bit frustrated after playing such a great game here against a top-class side. If you look at the 92 minutes, we had three or four clear-cut chances, whereas they had none apart from the disallowed goal. We just needed to be a bit sharper in front of goal. That's football; let's keep our heads up and believe that it's possible."