Arsenal 3 – 2 Kairat – Match Report

Gabi continues her career at UCL

The chances continued to dwindle, with Viktor coming close to adding to his tally twice. The Swede shot just wide after good play from White and Havertz before diverting Myles Lewis-Skelly’s wicked low cross over the bar from close range.

Noni Madueke came into the match looking to add to his three UCL goals this season and almost did so as he forced his way into the Kairat box, before his shot was well blocked.

But we managed three as both scorers helped Martinelli set up. A clever pass and move allowed Christian Norgaard to find Havertz inside the penalty area. The German then addressed Gyokeres who, trying to finish, touched the ball into the path of Martinelli, who did the rest.

The goal was initially ruled out by the assistant referee, but after the second lengthy VAR check of the match, Havertz was deemed to be onside as Martinelli celebrated his sixth goal of the league stage.

Gabi whiffed on another and almost made it 4-1 less than a minute after her first strike. Spotted in time and space by Havertz, the Brazilian was only able to shoot Temirlan Anarbekov in the Kairat net, who made a good save.

knock on the door

A day after celebrating five years at the club, Martin Odegaard was introduced at the break for Havertz and almost found the net, but his header from a Martinelli cross was straight at Anarbekov.

The early chances continued to come for Mikel Arteta’s side. Madueke was next to try his luck as his volleyed effort was parried by Anarbekov.

Martinelli was wreaking havoc down the left, providing a fine outside cross to find Odegaard once more, but the captain’s header was straight at Anarbekov for the second time within 15 minutes of the second half.

Hale End debuts

During his tenure as manager, Mikel Arteta made debuts to 17 academy products and he added two more to that long list in the final 15 minutes of the match. Winger Brando Bailey-Joseph, who scored in the UEFA Youth League this season, replaced Martinelli to become the 926th player to represent the club.

The 17-year-old was greeted with a round of applause from the N5 faithful and was found inside the box by Madueke, but he failed to control the ball to unleash a shot.

We looked to add a fourth late in the game and substitute Gabriel Jesus almost found it, after being played brilliantly by Norgaard. The Brazilian opened his body to try and find the bottom corner but shot just wide. Gabi then thought he had scored after finishing off another fine ball from Norgaard, but the flag went up for a narrow offside.

This proved to be Norgaard’s last involvement as we gave another debut to an academy starlet in Ife Ibrahim. Just days after signing his first professional contract, the youngster made his professional debut.

It was almost time for Kairat to have the last word as substitute Ricardinho came home from point blank range to send the away fans, who had traveled more than 4,000 miles for the competition in London, home with a moment to remember.

FACTS AND STATISTICS

We have won eight games in a row in the Champions League – only one English team has had a longer winning streak in European Cup/UEFA Champions League history, with Manchester City winning 10 in a row between May 2023 and March 2024.

Four of our eight January matches across all competitions ended 3-2, ending with the team winning three of them (against Bournemouth, Chelsea and Kairat) and losing the other to Man Utd.

Despite losing all four of their away matches in the Champions League this season, Kairat has scored in all of them (6 goals in total), netting twice in each of their last two against FC Copenhagen and at the Emirates Stadium.

Each of Gabriel Martinelli’s last eight goals have been in the cup, while only Thierry Henry (7 in 2001/02 and 7 in 2002/03) has scored more goals for us in a single Champions League campaign than Martinelli’s six this season.

Since his Arsenal debut in August 2023, Kai Havertz has scored and assisted in eight different matches in all competitions, with only Bukayo Saka doing so more often for us in that time (9 matches).

This was the first time we have named a completely different starting XI from the previous match since against Dundalk in the Europa League in December 2020.

what’s next

We return to Premier League action on Saturday January 31, facing Leeds United at Elland Road at 3pm. Next, we host Chelsea in the second leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final, aiming to qualify for our first EFL Cup final since 2018. Our next Champions League clash isn’t until March, in the round of 16.