English 
Will the Porto-Arsenal clash be decided in the first leg?
It’s even in the cards that the Gunners will decide the qualification in the first leg.
On Wednesday, there will be two more matches in the Champions League last eight, and in this article we will focus on the Porto-Arsenal clash. The English team is the oddsmakers’ favourite to win the game, with three-way odds of @1.70 .
Team news
Porto managed to progress from a middling group in second place, as they were overtaken by Barcelona thanks to better results against each other, while they finished ahead of Shakhtar Donetsk and Antwerp, or so to speak, the paperwork was correct.
After losing to Sporting in mid-December, the Portuguese side were in good form until the end of January (only one of their seven matches was a draw), but then they surprisingly came from a goal down to draw at home to Rio Ave and then lost 3-2 at home to Arouca. On Saturday, they improved their form, beating Estrela 2-0 at home to remain third in the league, but seven points behind leaders Benfica and Sporting (who have played one less game).
Probable lineups
The good news is that only Marcano, who has been missing for Porto since mid-September, was absent at the weekend, and Taremi is likely to be the only other Spaniard to miss out for Sergio Conceicao’s side this week.
As for the away side, Arsenal also lived up to their billing in the group stage, drawing the B-four alongside PSV Eindhoven, Lens and Sevilla with relative ease.The Blues have been in blistering form in recent weeks, winning five in a row following the FA Cup defeat and elimination to Liverpool in early January.
Moreover, these successes are getting more and more resounding, beating Liverpool 3-1 just over two weeks ago, followed by a 6-0 (!) win at home to West Ham and a 5-0 (!) win at Burnley on Saturday. And thanks to their success, they are just two points clear of leaders Liverpool.As for their absentees, on Saturday Gabriel Jesús, Partey, Timber, Tomiyasu, Vieira and Zinchenko were all absent, but this is nothing new, Arteta can count on these players to miss at least two games, or else success will come without them.
What is worth betting on?
No doubt Arsenal have the superiority and are in much better form than Porto, which is practically the only advantage they have at home, although the Blues are also doing well away from home.
Or it’s also in the cards that the English will decide the qualification in the first leg, so we won’t overthink our bet, we’ll just take the “away”.
✅ Prediction #1: Arsenal @1.71
Bet deadline: 21 February 21:00
