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Arsenal secured a 1-1 draw against Bayer Leverkusen in the first leg of the UEFA Champions League Round of 16 tie, at the BayArena. Mikel Arteta opened up on replacing Bukayo Saka from the pitch for Noni Madueke in the second half of the game.
In the second half, Arteta replaced Saka with Noni in the 60th minute of the game, who later won the penalty converted by Kai Havertz. Seeing this many fans were shocked and raised questions on Arteta's decision.
After the game, Arteta revealed that the decision was taken purely on tactical merits, as he claimed that it was already planned to manage the workload of Saka.
He also said that the game was also demanding some kind of extra flare in terms of creativity from the flanks.
"I thought that we needed something else, Noni has been contributing and being a real threat and I decided to make the change," said Arteta.
Tough second half for Arsenal
The second half was majorly dominated by the hosts, as they were clinical with their passes and managed to have 45% of the ball possession. Leverkusen almost scored the winner as Martin Terrier executed a perfect header but it was saved by Arsenal's goalkeeper David Raya.
Kai Havertz's equaliser
In the dying minutes of the game, Arsenal winger Noni Madueke was fouled in the opponent box by Leverkusen's Malik Tillman. The war intervened to check, and a penalty was awarded to Arsenal. Kai Havertz who came off the bench, stepped up to take the penalty and managed to convert it into the bottom left corner to equalise the game against his former side.
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