Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta backed Gabriel Martinelli to get over his shoot-out heartache.

The Gunners crashed out of the Europa League on penalties against Sporting Lisbon with Martinell failing from the spot.

Arteta said: “When you take the decision to take a penalty, the possibility of missing is always there. But Gabi will learn from it like Bukayo Saka did two years ago. This result is a huge blow. We really wanted to go through and fight for this competition. We tried for 120 minutes and penalties but it wasn't enough.

“The effort the boys put in even when we were not at our best and the hunger they showed to win was incredible. We gave the ball away many, many times and we need to look at ourselves because we can't keep relying on the last 20 minutes to win these games.

“It's true that in the last 15 minutes we had the chances and then in extra-time the chances to win it. But when it goes down to the penalties there's always a lot of uncertainty and tonight we lost it.

“The disappointment of this result is not going to go away quickly, but at least it brings us clarity. Now we have 11 games to play in the League and we have to recover our energy and pick ourselves up for a cup final against Crystal Palace on Sunday."