Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya made a superb double save to secure an away point in their opening Champions League fixture at Atalanta, while 10-man Barcelona were off to a shaky start with defeat by Monaco. The Gunners found their opening match sandwiched between the North London derby, where they beat Tottenham last weekend, and a visit to Manchester City on Monday (AEST). City also seemed to have one eye on that Premier League blockbuster when they drew their opening match of this year’s UCL a day earlier against Inter Milan.
Much like in the 1-0 win over Spurs, Arsenal were defensive and restrained, and it took some brilliance from their keeper Raya to keep the final score to 0-0. After Thomas Partey was ruled to have brought down Ederson in the second half, Raya spoke to the team’s goalkeeping coach Inaki Cana during a lengthy VAR delay to determine if the foul was in or outside the box. Raya returned and dived low to keep out Mateo Retegui’s penalty and the striker had a perfect chance to make amends.
His header was on target but Raya sprung up and kept it from going over the line. “It’s just a penalty, I was lucky to go the right way,” Raya told TNT Sports. “I was unlucky to give the rebound straight to him but I was lucky to get up and save it.
It’s great to keep the clean sheet and help the team get a point. “The decision to go to the sideline was because it was a long time to decide if it was a pen or not. “I went to the goalkeeper coach and asked.