Eze thunderbolt sends Arsenal flying into Champions League last eight

Arsenal produced a commanding display at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday night to sweep aside Bayer Leverkusen 2-0 and book their place in the Champions League quarter-finals for a third consecutive season.

Eberechi Eze announced himself on the European stage with a spectacular long-range strike, before Declan Rice added a composed second to seal a 3-1 aggregate victory and set up a last-eight meeting with Sporting Lisbon.

After a frustrating first leg in Germany that required a late Kai Havertz penalty to salvage a 1-1 draw, Arsenal knew they needed to be ruthless on home soil. They were utterly dominant from the first whistle, laying siege to the Leverkusen goal with relentless intensity .

Leandro Trossard, Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Magalhaes all went close, but found Leverkusen goalkeeper Janis Blaswich in inspired form.

The German shot-stopper made a remarkable ten saves across the 90 minutes, denying Arsenal time and again with a series of superb reflex stops.

But even Blaswich could do nothing about Eze’s 36th-minute thunderbolt. The summer signing from Crystal Palace controlled Trossard’s pass on the edge of the box, swivelled and unleashed an unstoppable rocket that screamed into the top corner for his first Champions League goal.

Any lingering hope Leverkusen harboured of mounting a comeback was extinguished just after the hour mark. Rice intercepted a weak clearance, strode purposefully towards the edge of the area and stroked a clinical finish into the bottom corner.

The goal was Rice’s first in the Champions League this season and put the seal on a thoroughly professional performance from Mikel Arteta’s side. David Raya preserved the clean sheet late on with an acrobatic save to deny Christian Kofane, ensuring Arsenal completed a statement victory .

The victory sets up a quarter-final clash with Sporting Lisbon, who pulled off a remarkable comeback of their own earlier on Tuesday, overturning a 3-0 first-leg deficit to hammer Bodo/Glimt 5-0 after extra time .

Arsenal will take confidence from their group-stage meeting with the Portuguese side last season, which they won 5-1 in Lisbon.