Mikel Arteta was relieved Arsenal found the "magic moment" that secured their 1-0 Champions League quarter-final first-leg victory over Sporting CP.

Arsenal looked set to endure another frustrating outing, but they bounced back from their EFL Cup and FA Cup disappointments thanks to Kai Havertz's last-gasp strike.

Noni Madueke also struck the crossbar in Lisbon with an in-swinging corner in the first half, while Martin Zubimendi saw a second-half goal disallowed due to Viktor Gyokeres being offside in the build-up.

Havertz's goal, which was impressively created by Gabriel Martinelli, is Arsenal's seventh 90th-minute winner in the Champions League, with each of their last four coming away from home.

In their last six knockout games in the competition, Arsenal have only lost once in the first leg (W3 D2), while they have progressed in seven of their last eight ties when winning the opener.

Arteta admitted he was worried Arsenal would not find a breakthrough, but was thrilled to be taking an advantage back to the Emirates Stadium next week.

"Very happy to win away from home in the quarter-finals of the Champions League against a team that have not lost at home for I don't know how long," Arteta told Amazon Prime.

"I think the last time was probably in Europe as well. That shows the difficulty of it.

"When we got into the final third, and we sat there, we missed the final bit. We had to be a little bit crisper, faster, more efficient to break them down when they had that block.

"We had a goal disallowed, and there were two or three occasions where we were close, but we lacked that final pass. In the end, a magic moment from the finishers win us the game."

Arsenal's win also means that the Premier League has secured a fifth Champions League spot for the second season running.

As for Sporting, they have now lost all five of their Champions League knockout-stage first-leg ties by an aggregate score of 0-17.

It was also their first home loss in the competition this season, though they will feel disheartened not to come away with a result.

Sporting had 11 shots, five of which were on target, while they struck the crossbar early on through Maxi Araujo. They also edged the expected goals (xG) battle 0.84 to 0.78.

"It is only natural to feel a bit frustrated after the great game we played here against a top-class side," head coach Rui Borges told UEFA.

"It is frustrating. If you look at the 92 minutes, we had three or four clear-cut chances, whereas they had none apart from the disallowed goal.

"We just needed to be a bit sharper in front of goal. That's football; let's keep our heads up and believe that it is possible."