Our 7-1 demolition of PSV Eindhoven in the first leg of our Champions League last-16 tie was a scoreline no Gooner watching live will ever forget, and saw us break a host of club and competition records.
The result it is our biggest away win in our European Cup and Champions League history, surpassing the famous 5-1 win against Inter Milan at the San Siro in 2003 as well as the drubbing of Sporting Lisbon back in November, which were our previous best efforts on the road in Europe's premier club competition.
When it comes to all European competitions, our win in the Netherlands sits third on our all-time biggest away wins, with the 7-0 rout of Standard Liege in the 1993/94 UEFA Cup Winner’s Cup still top of the tree, and is indeed the largest win on our travels in any competition:
| Date | Opponent | Score | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|
| 03/11/1993 | Standard Liege | 7-0 | Cup Winners' Cup |
| 04/03/2025 | PSV | 7-1 | Champions League |
| 25/09/1963 | Copenhagen XI | 7-1 | Inter-Cities Fairs Cup |
| 25/11/2003 | Inter Milan | 5-1 | Champions League |
| 26/11/2024 | Sporting CP | 5-1 | Champions League |
| 15/04/2021 | Slavia Prague | 4-0 | Europa League |
| 25/09/2002 | PSV | 4-0 | Champions League |
However, we also broke not only club records but Champions League bests too. We have now become the first side in the tournament's history to score seven goals away from home in the knockout stages, and our rip-roaring start saw us score five times in the first 48 minutes of the game, the earliest an away side has ever hit that mark in the competition. We also became the first team in Champions League history to have six different scorers (excluding own goals) in an away knockout stage game.
It was our first win on Dutch soil for 17 years, stretching back to our win over Twente in 2008, and it was a night PSV will want to quickly forget as they conceded seven goals in a game for just the third time in their history, and the first time since 1960.
It had been over 12 years since we last hit seven goals in a single game, going back to when we beat Newcastle United 7-3 in the Premier League back in December 2012, having put the same amount past Reading a few months earlier on our travels in the League Cup - albeit after extra-time. It was also the second time we've hit seven in the Champions League, following our 7-0 win at Emirates Stadium against Slavia Prague in 2007.
As for individuals, as well as becoming just the third Englishman to start a Champions League knockout game before turning 18, Ethan Nwaneri became the third-youngest player to score a knockout stage goal in the tournament, after Bojan in April 2008 and Jude Bellingham in April 2021.
In Ethan and Myles Lewis-Skelly, we started a Champions League game with two teenagers for the first time since September 2014 against Galatasaray, when Hector Bellerin and Calum Chambers featured. However you have to go back to March 2007 for the last time we did that in the knockouts, when Cesc Fabregas and Denilson took on PSV.
Remarkably, it was the first time we had netted more than three times in a Champions League knockout game, as we hit a height that will surely take a long time to surpass. Most importantly, we've now won each of our last five games in the competition, the first time we’ve done that since 2005/06, when we went all the way to the final.
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