Arsenal had to come from behind against Sporting Lisbon to earn a 2-2 draw in a drama-packed Europa League last-16 first-leg fixture.
The 22nd-minute header from William Saliba gave The Gunners, who were still without Gabriel Jesus despite his recent return to training, the lead.
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Goncalo Inacio and Paulinho scored for Sporting giving them a shock lead at the start of the second half.
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has urged his side saying they must “improve massively” if they want to win games and lift trophies.
The return leg is scheduled for next Thursday after an own goal by the hosts’ Japanese midfielder Hidemas Morita.
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Arteta on his side conceding two goals for the second successive game:
“When you concede two poor goals like we did away from home in Europe, it’s very difficult to get a positive result.
“The game had different phases because we gave too many simple balls away in our own half and gave them the capacity to (exploit) transition moments which they are good at.
“In other moments we had total control of the game and we lost a little bit of threat today, especially with the four players we are missing in our frontline.
Fabio Vieira’s header was to carry the day for Arsenal but keeper Antonio Adan kept it out.
Europa League is worth winning for Arsenal and Arteta despite chasing their first Premier League title since 2003-04.
Arteta made six changes going into the sporting game with Gabriel Martinelli who is Arsenal’s leading scorer in the Premier League alongside Bukayo Saka ahead of their trip to Fulham on Sunday. However, Arteta’s side will have to improve defensively if they are to advance to the quarter-finals against opponents who started the season in the Champions League.
Arteta on Arsenal’s defense:
“Some positives because we showed a lot of resilience to get back in the game, but we need to defend our box much better and be better on Sunday.
“We’ve played some really emotional games recently. We made a lot of changes today and sometimes that takes time to get that cohesion. You could feel in the first 15 minutes that it needed some time to adapt and click. If we don’t expose them, though, that’s never going to happen.”
“In this competition if you want to go through you have to go through difficult moments,” the Arsenal boss said. “We’re still alive and hopefully we’ll play better at the Emirates.”
January signing from Serie A side Spezia for £17.6m and Poland defender Jakub Kiwior made his first Arsenal appearance as Turner replaced first-choice keeper Aaron Ramsdale in between the posts.
The chase for domestic and European honors continues for Arsenal as games are starting to come thick and fast and a balance and the best form are needed from them.
Arsenal have now won only one of their last six European knockout stage games (D3 L2), while the Gunners have scored first and not won in a Europa League game away from home since November 2019 against Vitória Guimarães (1-1).
Fábio Vieira has now provided six assists for Arsenal in all competitions this season, only Bukayo Saka (9) has more for the Gunners this term.
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In other Europa League fixtures;
Sevilla (2)-(0) Fernerbahce
Roma (2)-(0) Real Sociedad
Union Berlin (3)-(3) Union Saint-Gilloise
Juventus (1)-(0) SC Freiburg
Shakhtar Donetsk (1)-(1) Feyenoord
Sporting (2)-(2) Arsenal
Manchester United (4)-(1) Real Betis
