Champions League: Raya's double save earns Arsenal goalless draw at Atalanta

Bergamo (Italy), Sep 20 (IANS) David Raya's brilliant double save earned Arsenal a draw from a hard-fought contest agaiy Atalanta in the Champions League fixture.

Marco Carnesecchi kept out Bukayo Saka's free-kick and Charles De Ketelaere fired wide as the teams cancelled each other out before the break.

After it, Atalanta failed to convert a penalty – awarded after Thomas Partey had brought down Éderson – as Raya kept out Mateo Retegui's attempt and follow-up header. Juan Cuadrado and Gabriel Martinelli had chances to win it late on but the game finished goalless.

The opening 20 minutes saw Arsenal creating some good chances. Saka whipped it low towards the bottom corner but Marco Carnesecchi made a good stop and did well to prevent Thomas Partey from sneaking in the rebound.

Martinelli fired a half-chance well over from inside the box on 17 minutes, but from that point onwards the half became an error-strewn affair with both teams struggling to keep possession, which led to a scarcity of chances.

A Charles de Ketelaere attempt that flew over the angle of post and bar just before the half-hour mark was the only other incident of note before Clement Turpin blew his whistle for the interval.

However, the second half took two minutes to burst into life, but not in the way Arsenal would have liked when Ederson slipped past Partey into the box and saw his heel clipped by the Ghana captain. Turpin pointed to the spot and after a lengthy VAR check, the decision was upheld.

Mateo Retegui stepped up confidently, but while Raya saved his low effort, the ball spun back to the striker. It seemed that the net was destined to bulge and produced a reflex save to claw the ball off his goalline to keep us level.

Arsenal continued to struggle to impose on proceedings and the hosts continued to create opportunities. Juan Cuadrado’s blast from 25 yards failed to trouble Raya as it fizzed over the crossbar midway through the second 45, and the Colombian had a second go on 73 minutes, which whistled just off target.

But seconds later, Gunners finally crafted out another sight of goal when a fresh Raheem Sterling nudged the ball through for Martinelli, who escaped behind the defence, but being off-balance when trying to round Carmesecchi caused him to shoot well over.

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