Nasri and Bendtner help Arsenal to famous victory

Arsenal 5 Porto 0. Samir Nasri scored one of the greatest goals in Champions league' history as Arsenal humbled the Portuguese powerhouse at the Emirates to book their place in the last eight of Europe's premier competition.

Going into the tie 2-1 down on aggregate (and without injured skipper Cesc Fabregas), Arsenal put on a sparkling first-half display to turn around 2-0 to the good at the break. But Porto came out a different team in the second half and looked to be closing in on an all-important away goal. Then, in the 64th minute, came Nasri's moment of magic.

Picking up the ball out wide on the right, the 22-year-old Frenchmen accelerated towards the Porto penalty box but was quickly hemmed in by three defenders. Weaving right, then left, left again, right, Nasri's dancing feet left his would-be tacklers stumbling and stuttering. Then he glanced up, picked his spot and rifled a shot past Helton into the far corner of the Porto goal.  

Three minutes later the Gunners were four up after a devastating counter-attack. A Porto corner was cleared and the ball fell to Arshavin. Dashing forward, tacklers trailing in his wake, the Russian surged into the Porto half, threaded a sweet ball to Emmanuel Eboue, who rounded keeper Helton and slotted home.

The coup de grace came in the final minute after Eboue had been barged over in the Porto box.  Nicklas Bendtner sent the spot kick low and to the right of Helton for his third and Arsenal's fifth of the night.

It was a night to forget for the Portuguese, who were outclassed and overwhelmed by a rampant Arsenal. Porto had only lost once before in European competition by such a heavy margin and their back four will be having nightmares about Andrei Arshavin for weeks to come. His pace unsettled the Porto defence from the outset and it was from one such jinking run that Arsenal took the lead in the 10th minute. Though Fucile blocked the Russian, the ball flew loose to Bendtner, who poked it home to level the scores on aggregate.

Fifteen minutes later Arshavin was at it again, darting into the penalty area with the ball seemingly glued to his foot.  This time Fucile and two of his teammates were unable to stop Arshavin and his low cross was met on the edge of the six-yard box by Bendtner for his second goal of the night.  

Arshavin should have netted himself on several occasions, once hoofing his shot over the bar having been set up by Nasri, and late on rising above the Porto defence only to head wide with the goal at his mercy. Not to worry, it was a night that will go down in Arsenal history as one of their finest. Even though they had thrashed Porto 4-0 eighteen months ago in a Champions League pool match, last night's victory was a triumph of resilience and determination.

The last month has been a torrid one for the Gunners, losing heavily to Manchester United and Chelsea in the league, and then seeing Aaron Ramsey shatter his leg against Stoke. And with Fabregas out injured, not to mention Robin van Persie, who scored twice in the previous win over Porto, many people believed Arsenal would struggle to overturn Porto's 2-1 leg from the first-leg. History seemed to be against the Gunners, too, as only once before had they overturned a first-leg deficit in European competition, against Hadjuk Split in 1978.

Not surprisingly, Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger was a happy man afterwards. "It's never perfect but that was a very good performance, very strong," he said. "We had a very good first half. They played well for ten to 15 minutes at the start of the second, but after Nasri scored the third goal that made a big difference; from then on it was easy. Nasri's goal was individual brilliance but overall it was a good, solid team performance."

A shell-shocked Porto coach Jesualdo Ferreira claimed "the result looks harsh" and bemoaned his side's bad luck at various stages of the game. Nonsense. Porto were simply blown away by the better side. As the Portuguese returned home to lick their many wounds, Wenger was rubbing his hands in glee at the prospect of the quarter-final draw . "I have a funny feeling that it would be good for us to play an English team," he said with a smile. " We haven't done well against Chelsea and Man United this year and it would be a good opportunity to put that right." ·