Arsenal could have been facing up to a tie against French champions Paris Saint-Germain, Italian champions Napoli or last season’s beaten finalists Inter – who are currently top of Serie A.
Instead they will take on Porto, who were beaten home and away by Barcelona in the group stages and are currently third in the Portuguese top-flight, though they have played a game less than leaders Benfica.
But Edu believes Porto’s illustrious history in the competition – only Barcelona and Real Madrid have qualified more times, while they have also lifted the trophy twice in 1987 and 2004 – means they cannot be taken lightly.
Speaking after the draw, Edu told Arsenal’s website: ‘We are going to play against a club that is very used to playing in the competition because they play in it every single year and they have a lot of players as well with big experience.
‘We have to understand how are we going to play and respect them as much as we can.
‘We will play our game and see if we can go through this stage.
‘We can see how they are playing, how organised they are, and the players that they have.
‘Porto is a club that you have to be really prepared to play against or we’ll have problems, so what we have to concentrate on is maintaining our levels and the way we are playing.’
Edu added: ‘The most important thing for us is to maintain our performances and the way we are playing.
‘That’s our focus, that’s where we want to be and want to keep growing, so let’s see how far we can go in the competition.
‘We want to try and go as far as possible, but we are very much concentrating on playing well, performing well and playing the best football we can, and then we’ll see how far we go.’
