A fuming Porto manager Sergio Conceicao reportedly accused Mikel Arteta of insulting his family.
On Tuesday night, Arsenal welcomed Porto to the Emirates Stadium as they looked to overturn their 1-0 defeat at the Estadio do Dragao.
The Gunners won 1-0 on the night thanks to a goal by Leandro Trossard, sending the tie to extra time.
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Eventually, Arsenal sneaked through to the quarter-finals after winning the penalty shootout.
After the final whistle, Porto boss Conceicao was seen having a conversation with Arteta.
As reported by Fabrizio Romano, Conceicao said: “Arteta turned to the bench during the game and insulted my family in Spanish.
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“I told him that the person he insulted is no longer among us.”
He added: “Let him worry about training his team, which has more than enough quality to play a lot better.”
However, Romano later added: “#AFC club sources deny any offensive or insulting sentence said by Mikel Arteta.”
On Arteta’s response to the incident, Romano wrote: “'No comment. Thanks very much', this was the reply by Mikel Arteta when asked about Conceição’s strong accusations.
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“Arsenal club sources have firmly denied any offensive or insulting sentence towards the Porto manager.”
SPORTbible has contacted Arsenal for comment.
Speaking about his time’s performance, Arteta told the club's official website: “I’m so happy, I’m so proud, especially for the club. It’s been 14 years not achieving the quarter-finals of the Champions League, and that’s a long time. It shows you how difficult it is to do it.
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“A big credit to the boys for what they have done today and to everybody that turned up in the stadium and from their homes, bringing that incredible energy into the stadium to help us win the game.”
He continued: “It was very difficult to get constant momentum in the game, with the way they play, credit to them. We knew that that was going to be the case, we had to be really patient and emotionally controlled, and wait for the moments. We were going to have moments and, in those moments, we had to put them away and we’ve done that.”
Arsenal will be back in action at the end of the March when they take on Manchester City in a mouth-watering Premier League clash.
Topics: Arsenal, Mikel Arteta, Champions League, FC Porto, Football
Marcus Chan