Arsenal will face CSKA Moscow in the quarter-finals of the Europa League as we continue our quest to secure European silverware for the first time since 1994.
We’ve played out Russian opponents in Europe before, losing 1-0 away and drawing 0-0 in the 2006/07 Champions League.
The two-leg tie will be played on Thursday 5 (Emirates) and Thursday 12 April (Moscow) respectively. Let’s see what we can do for Anglo-Russian relations…
Full draw
Leipzig vs Marseille
Arsenal vs CSKA Moscow
Atletico Madrid vs Sporting Lisbon
Lazio vs Salzburg
Could be worse
Could be better …
I am sure AC Milan would have liked to be in this draw, ………
Wud hv preferred Atleti to be fair.
You really need to write like that?
Leave him, he’s drunk
I also think we have a better chance at beating Atletico over the two legs rather than a one off and a Portuguese referee or something. We should outscore Atletico over two legs if we play the way we know we can. Atletico would be more difficult in a one off knockout game, esp if they go one up.
They r bottlers…in one off games… lost 2 finals says it all…specially Griezmann missing a penalty in the 80th minute, from what I remember. I would say we have better chance if we happen to meet them in the Final.. but one game at a time. Lets get to the semis first… was it Rosicky who missed an open goal against CSKA from 3 yards last time we met?
Wud want to see Athleti eliminated before I dare to dream, I don’t believe that Sporting can evict them, maybe we should av done it ourselves.
Excuse me blogs. Have we relaxed the rules about this type of slang? It hurts to read.
nah…we should face atletico …It would be a great game to watch
what’s the joy in having it easy?
Let’s hope the atmosphere’s not too poisonous.
I think it’ll be a bit nervy even if we’re still on a run
*gets coat*
Think A. Madrid and us in the final makes an excellent final
Not bad
I am a bit miffed that the 2nd leg is away. This means that we’ll be under pressure to win well in the first leg.
CSKA are also a fucking unpredictable and dangerous team. They qualified yesterday by managing to beat Lyon 3-2 away, having lost 2-1 the first leg.
^First thing that sprung to mind, particularly after we’ve just demonstrated how well you can set up a tie by playing away first. It can go the other way. If you go to Moscow first and fail to get on the scoresheet, even if it’s a 0-0 then the home leg becomes a bit nervous and you’ve almost blown your advantage. We have to be solid favourites though, I’m happy with the tie. It’s not the one you’d pick, but it’s ok. Having just looked at the Russian League table, CSKA are in 3rd (qualifying for the CL), but it’s… Read more »
Could potentially give us more time to get an away goal if it goes to extra time. Hopefully we score and keep a clean sheet at home.
David, away goals don’t count in extra time, but mentally it can help if the 2nd leg turns into a goal fest that’s close on aggregate.
Away goals most definitely do count in extra time. It’s Article
20.01 from the 2017-18 UEFA CL and EL rulebook which contains this sentence:
If both teams score the same number of goals during extra time, away goals count double (i.e. the visiting team qualifies).
really? since when? I’ll have to look that up…
I researched and it says if 2 teams both score in extra time then the away goals rule still applies.
Either way, it’s probably the dumbest rule in all of sports. I’m Canadian, nothing like that exists over here in North American sports. A goal is a goal, shouldn’t matter where it’s scored.
Have a great St. Paddy’s day everyone!
Clean sheet will be the best thing if we manage it. I fancy us to score over there, and any equalizers you get puts you through. I’d be happy with one or two nil, rather than going all out to try and finish the tie early, because that can have devastating results/cons.
Well, not as tricky as Atletico Madrid, but tricky nonetheless. I have faith in our team. COYG.
Let’s win this tie as well, and let’s give the English media another nonexistent reason to criticise our team.
They will always find a reason
Don’t you amaze by their ability to find negative reason out of positive event? Their parent who spend time & money to educate them in journalism must be feeling proud
Maybe it would help if they wasn’t close to being shit
What are the other ”nonexistent” reasons? lolz
Reminds me of when two English teams played in Moscow in the final at the height of another Russian spy drama 10 years ago. If I were a traveling fan, I wouldn’t be looking forward to a trip to Russia.
I wonder what kind of reception we’ll get, considering the current political climate
In the context of the world cup, it’ll be fine, even with the current James Bond stuff going on.
Got to be careful of those pesky Russians! I’ve heard Putin is planning to infiltrate the UK with bad weather again on Sunday! Brrrr!
I’m being ironical by the way. Hopefully a good opportunity that football fans can show that normal people can get on just fine and don’t want to start WWIII. Unlike many governments of our world
You think it will be worse than Spurs? No.
Come on Arsenal! Pity drawn at home for the first tie….
I’ll take that!
2nd leg at the Emirates?
2nd leg in Moscow
3 Home games on the trot then. Let’s do this.
well i think vs cska is better to olay the first leg home get a good result and go there with full cobfidence instead of playing the 1st leg in russia in their plastic pitch and cold and go down 2-0
Just waiting for the government to tell us what a disgrace we are to English football by going to Moscow to play a game….
What on earth are you on about?
Read the news sunshine
I honestly don’t understand your initial post, either. Has the UK government chastised the FA for planning on going to the World Cup i the wake of the poisonings, or something?
It was humour! You know, like you take incongruous things and put them together–the “disgrace” of Danny’s dive and sanctions against Russia. Get it? Should I explain again?
Well the team should take a suitcase full of beans. Don’t want to be eating anything over there, especially not Zizzis
The government won’t do anything but the media will have comrade Arsene plastered all over their shit rags with Jeremy Corban calling Arsenal the communist club. We are already the terrorist club because of that berk in an Arsenal kit going on a driving and stabbing rampage.
Yeah, sorry guys, this is one away trip I’m avoiding.
“Chelsea of the east” is the worst outcome.. in its best hours the team is on level with the top in Europa. The gravity of this does not sink in the same way it does when playing Real Madrid. Additionally, the recent political tensions between Russia and Britain will come into play. They will love beating us, while our supporters will probably not dare to go to Moscow.
Let’s leave football as football!
I think you’ll find West Ham are the Chelsea of the East.
Roman Abrahamovich owns both CSKA and Chelsea. The away match will be very tricky. As we have no defence, a typical Morinho-approach will kill us.
mate relax, it’s okay
Oh I forgot Abramovic decides the tactics.
Most interestingly, Roman Abrahamovich allegedly are among the tycoons the government is mulling taking the money from:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/15/world/europe/britain-russia-assets-poisoning.html
Shit draw.
Let’s face it: where’s the last place in Europe that you’d want to travel to right now? Let’s hope our fans get good security.
At least we avoided Athletico Madrid.
Nah, Moscow will be fine. It’s like Pippin said in LOTR2, when he was trying to enlist Treebeard to fight at Isengard: “the closer you are to danger, the further you are from harm.” (This is also Mustafi’s philosophy on defending, I believe.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xYXUeSmb-Y
I wish this was our philosophy in defence.
This is effing brilliant.
Fits right in with the current political mood. UK Vs Russia. Hahaha. Arsenal away fans.. please be careful.
Don’t let their trainer spray anything towards our players.
As probably the only American gooner in Moscow (there are lots of Russian gooners), I couldn’t be more pleased. Haven’t seen a match in person since we beat Man U 3-0 at the Emirates a few seasons ago. Sitting with the CSKA fans will be fun…
As someone there on the ground, what kind of reception do you think the away fans will get in Moscow? Is aggro likely given current events or just something that will be built up in our minds through what we hear of Russian football (and Russia generally) in the press? I’m surprised to hear there’s Russian gooners, but I guess why not.
Also your name is brilliant.
I have lived in Moscow 14 years. I think the risks are very real
I’m certainly not taking my two-year-old son with me, but I may have to finally walk into the official CSKA shop near my apartment and buy a shirt or something…
Edward Snowden, is that you?
Sitting with CSKA Moscow fans….the closer you are from danger, the farther you are from harm.
Hi, from an ex-pat Gooner living in Moscow. I’m trying to get tickets in the Arsenal end, got a mate who has a mate at the club….don’t fancy sitting with the home fans
Great name!
Must our team bring their own food and drink to Moscow and sterilise all utensils before each meal?
Joking aside (or not), this is a doable tie. COYG
Send the Arsenalfantv lads over, might not come back.
What a disgusting thing to say.
Why? The lads could genuinly like vodka and russian women and end up staying.
Many consider themselves far too “high brow dahling” to be associated with that “riff raff”.
Don’t let your high horse shit on the floor please guys.
This is good imo. Red Star gave them a run for their money, so it shouldn’t be much of a hustle… If we show up, of course…
If we play like we did in the 2 games against Milan we will get through. COYG! (Welbz to score hat trick of scruffy goals would be most excellent).
Hopefully we won’t be reliant on Welbz by then.
We’ve got to make them a mountain to climb in the second leg. Preferably, higher than the hill Milan had to climb yesterday.
Was hoping for the both Red Bull teams to be drawn against each other. So that we’d get rid of at least one of them
Bright side is we could be rid of both.
That’d be a high energy tie
Clever
This reminds me of the CL group game in ….2007 I believe where we battered CSKA from pillar to post, hitting shot after shot, getting chance after chance….and drew 0-0
And Rosicky received the ball 3 yards out in the centre of the goal…and passed it gently into the keepers arms.
If I also remember correctly we lost the away fixture in the group 1-0 but we did have an Henry goal ruled offside…so…
WE OWE THEM ONE
Just a minor correction: it was ruled out for a phantom handball.
Fun fact: the last time Arsenal played CSKA Moscow in London, the match was attended by Andrei Lugovoi. Who earlier that day, had met Alexander Litvinenko and allegedly slipped polonium in his tea. Traces of polonium were later found at the stadium during the investigation
[Copy – paste]
Somewhere a Russian man has just written down ‘connoisseur’ in red ink and underlined it three times.
No-one bring back any souvenirs.
Will Auba play now?
no. no this game. not the semis. not the final.
Do Germans still hate Russians? If so we should be in decent shape.
COYG!
I remember d last time we played them at d Emirates, we played them off d park but we couldn’t score,surprisingly. Rosicky missing an open goal.
Is it really so hard to write “the”?
Think of d time savings when extrapolated over a lifetime.
Surely a great chance for some quality banner/chant bantz, hopefully Arshavin arranges protection for us..
“Putin.. what’s the score?”
“Ohhh we’re halfway there, woooahh living on a prayer”
“Na na na nanana nahh nanana nahh.. Sanctions”
“It’s fun to play at the C..S..K..A” (complete with ? moves)
“We will we will… drug you”
Etc..
Well it’s better than being spat at by Jamie carragher I suppose !!
Looks like quite a kind draw considering the other teams left. Would have signed up for this or Salzburg before the draw. Lazio look good, so too Marseille. Sporting are dangerous and obviously Atleti. Lets do this tie and see who is left for the semis. COYG
Last four (if all goes well), Marseille, Lazio, Athletico and us.
I have lived in Moscow for 14 years, this is the draw I was praying for ….all my friends are CSKA fans. But anyone thinking of coming over for the game, be aware that there is considerable anti-English feeling at the moment, today it’s been pretty bad towards me, and it will only get worse. Coming to Russia is unlike other European countries. Happy to help anyone stay safe, local knowledge helps here….. Anyway, should be an easy win 🙂
I’m just going to venture that this might not be the best environment to stick English football fans into right now.
I’ve seen videos of the Russian hooligans training for the World Cup and I genuinely hope they don’t consider this a dress rehearsal, only normal fans will be travelling.
I won’t be going, but for those who do, I wouldn’t worry half as much as the people writing here. Russia has to a host a WC in the summer, they don’t want anything stupid to happen (riots, etc.). A West Ham match is probably ten times rowdier these days.
You’ll be fine.
We have to finish this during first leg..giving them 3 goal will easily pave ua a way to semis…