Arsenal made it through to the Europa League round of 16 last night with a 3-2 win over Benfica.
The draw takes place at 12pm, and these are our potential opponents – some of whom have added spice:
AC Milan – the Ivan Gazidis derby
Ajax – Overmars vs Edu
Dinamo Zagreb – Gabriel vs Burton
Dynamo Kyiv
Granada – The TA6 derby
Man Utd – absolute bastards
Molde – The been there, done that, worn the t-shirt tie
Olympiacos – Oh hi, Sokratis!
Rangers – The Kieran Tierney Inspirational
Roma – Get your Miki out
Shakhtar Donetsk – Free Willian – The Adventure Home
Slavia Praha
Sp*rs – 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩
Villarreal – Unai’s return
Young Boys
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So, plenty of choice ties. Let’s hope we avoid the English clubs who then get knocked out so we never have to play them.
We’ll bring you the full draw as it happens.
For now, read today’s Arseblog on last night’s game: Arsenal 3-2 Arsenal: Arsenal beat Arsenal to beat Benfica
F*ck me but somehow my feeling says we’ll meet one of the tougher opponents and while other English sides will cruise.. Preparing myself for more heart attack moments
Seeing Sp*rs luck in the first two rounds of the FA Cup and this cup so far, I’m not predicting anything good for us.
would absolutely love to play villareal.
In the final. For now Molde will do
Wait, Molde are those we played in the group stage?! How the hell did they go through? How bad are Hoffenheim?!
Hoffenheim are a rollercoaster, appearantly. Can beat Bayern one game, and fold to second division opposition the next.
So basically the Arsenal of Bundesliga
That’s what I thought at first then I realised we wouldn’t beat Bayern either.
They are the German gunners
Bound to be Olympiakos. Firstly, as we ALWAYS play Olympiakos and secondly, so we can be a pub quiz question about a team playing consecutive rounds in a ground that’s not our own.
I’d prefer Olympiakos to Roma in that pub quiz toss-up. At least that pitch was fast.
Roma the round after, just to add to the quiz question, ha
Olympiakos are Barca of CL – that we meet on a regular basis.
How I would like to Barca now, rather all those times we did when they were at their peak.
well looking at the financial condition and messi saga , we might meet barca in el from next season
Provided we qualify for EL, maybe the conference league oh wait..
Molde. Please.
Very happy to draw a mediocre low profile team – give us all a couple of extra weeks of recovery (players and fans!)
I hope so – mind you, some Gooners on this site though that we’d “dispose” of Benfica without too much trouble so there’s clearly mediocre and mediocre.
“Some” might have, but most people were moaning about us getting the “toughest” draw possible. (incidentally, I thought there were more difficult teams for us to have drawn, but was still pissed off we couldn’t have drawn some of the dross that was still in the competition)
Hmmm. I think most Gooners considered Benfica to be a tough draw (I certainly did) but I’m not sure about it being the toughest though. Anyway, there are some indisputably “tough” teams waiting in the next round so hopefully we won’t get one of those. I’ll vote for “dross” any day.
Rangers, Young Boys or Molde would do nicely. But we’re bound to get Olympiacos, AC Milan or Villarreal.
No english clubs please.. would be boring..
Unai derby looks tasty
Molde would be brilliant!!!
Not really fussed who we get. For me, Benfica were one of the strongest teams left in the whole 32. The English clubs I would prefer in the last 4 though to make it more of a tasty clash.
Didn’t they finish behind Rangers in their group?
That may be a tad over-optimistic. Benfica were certainly much better than some Gooners imagined but they aren’t doing too well (for them, anyway) in their league currently. However, Utd, Ajax and Milan – to name but three possible opponents – are all in the top two of their respective leagues. If we draw any of those I think we’ll have a tough time, based on the performances vs. Benfica.
milan would feel like proper champions league game.
But are you really basing that on the performances against Benfica, or just the results? Because I saw it has having scored four good goals, our star striker missing a host of chances in the first leg, and Benfica presenting absolutely no threat for about 175 of 180 minutes. The Ceballos gift is inexcusable, but their other two goals were really harsh on us. Should have been a comfortable 55-1 or 5-2 on aggregate, based on the performances.
I would have been happy with a 5-1, but I’ll take a 55-1 if you offered it to me… 😉
Ha ha ha, yeah, Auba didn’t miss THAT many chances.
But for all of our level of performance, we were very close (indeed) to being eliminated. If we are drawn against one of the really tough teams in the next round we will have to translate that performance level better than we did against Benfica to get through.
Yes, with that I agree completely.
A dream would be Man united against spurs, while we get an easy draw. The norwegian season hasn’t even started, so Molde would be my dream draw.
I suspect we will draw Sp*rs, United, while the other English team will draw a super easy team.
Well, I don’t think we want the likes of Utd, Ajax or Milan at this stage remembering that this is only the Round of 16.
We’ll draw Utd. Sp*rs will get Molde.
What is the TA6 derby
I think Tony Adams was manager at Granada for like a week?
ooh yes….and i think Isco mocked him for his suit or something
I want Spurs. Let’s put the sword to them.
We should relish the chance to knock them out. What have we come to when we’re scared of getting an English team?
if we’re*
It’s not being scared so much as it’s hoping for the easiest possible route to the final as possible. Because winning this thing is all that matters. No bonus points for doing it in style.
Plus this would mean three games in a row against those fuckers in the span of eight days. No thanks.
Why wouldn’t you want to beat them 3x in a row? They’re on garbage form. Good opportunity to show them who the real kings of NL are.
Small club mentality being scared of your traditional rival.
Never said I was scared. But even if we do fancy our chances against them, A) It’s still bound to be extra stressful, and B) It’s just kind of boring to play the same team over and over again.
The media would be annoying in the buildup and throughout that week, and do you really want to see the faces of their manager and some of their players that many times in a week? As I said above, No thanks!
Ha. Fair enough!
Let’s get Ajax and play an open game 😀
Dynamo Kyiv = The Oleh Luzhny derby
Slavia Prague = The 7-0 derby
Young Boys = The Anders Limpar derby
How old are those Young Boys? Should be fairly easy against highschoolers.
Rangers is also Arteta’s former club – and only a short journey – that would be a decent draw.
AC Milan would be tough – though Ibrahimović at 39 is the same age as Saka and Smith-Rowe combined.
I think next round will see milan, ajax, man u,Roma, spurs, olympiakos, shaktar and villareal knocked out.
It won’t see both Milan and Man Ure knocked, they drew each other. Hope you’re right about all the rest.