On a night when Arsenal ended the game with four left-backs on the pitch, this may not have been the biggest stage of Raheem Sterling’s illustrious career. But after a dismal loan spell from Chelsea during which the former England forward has failed to live up to his reputation, Sterling will be relieved to have finally made a contribution as Mikel Arteta’s side eased into a quarter-final with Real Madrid.
Sterling provided two assists in the first half as goals from Oleksandr Zinchenko and Declan Rice ensured Arsenal were never in danger of surrendering their record-breaking 7-1 advantage from the first leg. This time PSV Eindhoven proved more of a challenge and deserved to come away with a draw on the night thanks to equalisers from Ivan Perisic and then a sublime chip from Couhaib Driouech that denied Arteta’s side a place in the history books for the joint-biggest aggregate victory in the knockout stages.
After their failure to last the distance with Liverpool in the Premier League title race, Arsenal can now look forward to their second successive Champions League quarter‑final with genuine optimism – even if Sterling will miss the first leg after picking up a reckless late yellow card.
“The way he tracked back to the corner in the last action when he got booked – that’s the kind of play that we want to see,” Arteta said of his performance. “We’ve done it consistently and now we want to make the next step, which is going to be really difficult. But we are very capable of that.”
Although Arteta had insisted that Arsenal still had work to do in this tie, even he had to admit beforehand that they had one eye on events at the Metropolitano, where Atlético Madrid were playing Real. The prospect of a trip to the Spanish capital in the next round and their six-goal advantage from the first leg may have explained the number of empty seats at kick‑off, although the PSV fans at the Clock End made sure it was still a lively atmosphere. Footage of several fans taking in AFC Wimbledon’s defeat against Cheltenham in League Two on Tuesday night went viral on social media and they seemed determined not to allow the result to spoil their trip despite falling even further behind after only six minutes.
Zinchenko is expected to be allowed to leave in the summer after falling down the pecking order behind Myles Lewis-Skelly as first‑choice left-back and he was entrusted with the Martin Ødegaard role, while Kieran Tierney was pushed further forward as a makeshift left-winger.
The Ukrainian spent a season on loan at PSV after joining Manchester City in 2016 and refused to celebrate his first Champions League goal despite a brilliant curling finish that left Walter Benítez grasping at thin air after Sterling had turned over possession. At that stage Peter Bosz must have feared the worst. To his side’s credit, however, they refused to buckle and could even have won the game late on had it not been for an excellent David Raya save.
Johan Bakayoko missed a great opportunity to equalise before the veteran former Tottenham forward Perisic – deployed as a central striker – eventually did when he was left unmarked to tuck home a pass from Guus Til. Lewis-Skelly could have been given a penalty when he was taken out by Adamo Nagano after hitting the post with a deflected shot but the referee thought otherwise.
Raheem Sterling had one of his best nights in an Arsenal shirt. Photograph: Marcel van Dorst/DeFodi Images/Shutterstock
Arsenal’s second was all about Sterling as he rolled back the years by leaving two markers for dead before standing up a perfect cross for Rice to head home. You could almost see his confidence returning with every touch, although he could not finish off a golden chance to score just before half-time after being played clean through by Zinchenko.
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Arsenal’s 10-2 defeat on aggregate against Bayern Munich at this stage of the competition in 2017 remains one of the heaviest in Champions League history and they would have matched that margin – although this time eight goals to the good – at the start of the second half had Ben White’s shot not been saved. Raya was at full stretch to tip Isaac Babadi’s effort around the post as PSV continued to play for pride with Joey Veerman, on as a substitute, firing over the crossbar from a good position.
Riccardo Calafiori’s introduction for Rice led to Lewis-Skelly moving into midfield for the final half-hour as Arteta also rested Mikel Merino before the Premier League game against Chelsea on Sunday.
Sterling is ineligible to face his parent club and will be frustrated to have blotted his copybook when he was booked in stoppage time for taking out Bakayoko after Driouech rounded off the scoring with an impudent finish that left Raya stranded.
