Arsenal will face Sporting Lisbon in the Europa League last-16.
As a result of topping Group A with five wins from six games, the Gunners were able to sit out a nasty play-off round involving clubs dropping down from the Champions League. Now those matches are done and dusted, we’re being brought back into the fold.
Arsenal were one of the seeded teams for the draw and as a consequence will play the second leg at the Emirates on Thursday 16 March. The first leg is a week earlier on 9 March.
Arsenal have been drawn against Sporting twice before in European competition, beating them 3-0 on aggregate in the Fairs Cup in 1969 and in the 2018/19 group stages of the Europa League when we won 1-0 in Lisbon courtesy of a Danny Welbeck strike before a dull 0-0 draw at the Emirates.
The match will see a reunion with Hector Bellerin who moved to Sporting from Barcelona in January.
Europa League last 16 draw
Union Berlin vs Union Saint-Gilloise
Sevilla vs Fenerbahce
Juventus vs SC Freiburg
Bayer Leverkusen vs Ferencvaros
Sporting Lisbon vs Arsenal
Manchester United vs Real Betis
AS Roma vs Real Sociedad
Shakhtar Donestsk vs Feyenoord
Could be worse
Really could have been.
4th in their league. 15 points off the top. Not having a great season.
Strong team in the first leg and then hopefully rotate for the home game.
COYG!
Johnny, I wouldn’t risk ANY of our big guns until the semi finals.
We can’t afford any more first XI injuries matey – not if we’re serious about the title.
Keep our best players for the best competition, as fit, fresh and injury free as possible.
You know it makes sense. 😉🍺
I hear you Q, I really do. But I’m not as down on the Europa as most. I think we are of similar vintages so both remember with great fondness Alan Smith’s goal against Parma in 94. The fact we haven’t won a European trophy since then is nothing short of a travesty. And obviously if I had to choose, I’d bite your hand off for the league. But I seriously think we now have the depth to juggle both, especially with ESR and Jesus hopefully back. I think it comes down to injuries. If we start looking short, we… Read more »
The thing is, if you play these guys; Turner Tommi, Holding, Kiwior, Tierney Jorginho Vieira Xhaka Nelson Trossard ESR That little lot still have a fair amount of Premiership and/or International and/or World Cup experience under their belts. Everyone of those players qualifies for at least one of those criteria. For me, that should be more than enough for a last 16 tie – home and away – in the Europa. If we don’t get through, guess what? We’re back in the big boys cup next season – with hopefully a few more top drawer players to help us. If… Read more »
* and/or European
But where lies the easiest road to CL? Going full focus at the league, aiming for the (trophy) stars, at least landing on the (CL) moon? Og do we dare to also be ambitious in EL. I for once would be super proud of an EL trophy but am very burned by last spring where sooo many players seemed naggered and tired. Both physically and mentally. I felt so so sorry for Saka last spring. He wanted it so much. But had no more in the tank. So do we have enough for, qualify players to go strong in both?
Well said mate – and in answer to your question, no we don’t.
The squad isn’t that powerful – yet.
Secure the Premiership and the top drawer players will want to come to us.
Blow it by risking injuries and repeating last season’s patch up and pray antics – and we have to effectively start all over again next season. Just because we wanted to win the fucking Europa….🙄
Yup, could have been Cheating Lisbon…
I’ll get my coat.
Unsporting Lisbon? They might well be
Yes, I’m glad we didn’t draw Sporting Lesbos instead. A tricky trip to a Greek island would be the last thing we need in the middle of a title race!
Still better than Cheating Lesbos
Hector B back at the emirates!
Avoided the trickier opponents /long journeys and last leg is at home – can’t complain
There are really no longer journeys left, besides Istanbul.
Out of the 7 possible opponents, Lisbon is literally the furthest away.
Reasonable draw. COYG!
Our 2nd string should be able to handle them.
With that reasoning and attitude the only thing we are guaranteed to get is nothing.
In the face of a Premiership Title run-in, does it really matter……?
Take your time mate….
Mikel obviously won’t rotate the full 11, possibly 5 or 6 changes. Turner, Tomiyasu, Tierney, Jorginho, Vieira, and Smith-Rowe could all get a game.
Ignore the downvotes, it makes common sense to rest the first XI, save them from picking up needless injuries and put out the stiffs to give them an opportunity to stake a claim – especially as it’s a last 16 tie.
Some people on here couldn’t manage a brain fart, never mind a football squad.
You must be joking, it’s one of the biggest clubs in Europe’s maybe 6th or 7th best league. Our second string is mostly players who haven’t cost nor are being paid anywhere near Lisbon’s first string.
“anywhere near” is maybe a bit strong as we have some young expensive type ‘for the future’ players in our squad like Vieira and Kiwior. But after our first 3 or 4 substitutes we definitely would find it hard to compete with the type of quality and experience they have in their first team.
Why all the downvotes? In the midst our first genuine premiership title challenge in almost two decades, do we really want to risk any of our first eleven for the last 16 (or even the quarters) of the Europa League? Arteta hardly rotates our starting eleven (not a criticism, mind you) and we’ve started seeing signs of fatigue. We have a bit more squad depth now after the January window. Time to get our priorities right.
It’s crazy how many want to gamble this genuine League Title run-in for what used to be the UEFA cup and the Inter-City Fairs cup before it.
This, after already witnessing injuries to Jesus and Partey and our recent shipping eight points from the last twelve.. 🙄
I expect Arteta to rest a number of key players in this competition until at least the semifinals. Ramsdale, Gabriel, Saliba, White, Zinchenko, Odegaard, Saka and Martinelli should all be benched. At the back, you’d be looking at straight swaps for Turner, Tierney and Tommy, with Holding and possibly Kiwior in the centre. ESR and Nelson should get a return on the left and right wings respectively whilst Jorginho and Vieira should get more minutes to join Xhaka and show what they can do. Up front, I would be tempted to give Eddie a breather and start Trossard. The Europa… Read more »
Yeah sure switch the whole back 5 and all our performing creative players. We are playing a European competition and not a friendly.
Yeah – and if our first XI boys pick up needless injuries, who are you going to replace them with in the Premiership, mastermind….?
We’ve enough on our plate trying to cope without Jesus and Partey, never mind anyone else.
Fuck the Europa – the Premiership is the trophy that matters, pal.
This team and this season deserves a double. I say go get it. Rotate, but don’t effing treat it like it’s the league cup.
Mate, we haven’t got a squad or bench strong enough (yet( to play a lot of first team players in a second competition.
Imagine Saka or Saliba or Odegaard or Ramsey or Eddie picking up a season-ender prating about in the last 16 of a secondary European trophy, when there’s a Premiership title up for grabs.
Now bin that thought while you still can…..
It’d be a small risk for sure, I get it. And I will understand if Arteta decides against it. But as they discussed today on the pod there is a lot to be said for keeping a positive momentum going, it’s never great for team morale to crash out of any competition late in the season and players love playing, especially spicing it up with some exotic European locations instead of a trip to bloody Brentford or Birmingham. And our best backups like Vieira, Tierney and ESR would be much better served by getting integrated with some of the first… Read more »
* Ramsdale😂
It’s the Europa league mate, hardly the Holy Grail of European football competitions. What’s the point of “squad depth” if you can’t rest your key players for the one competition that really matters NOW?
I am with you this time. 7 games in 23 games. there’s 15 points on offer and these are our easier games.
In april, if we go through we will have 8 games, with most likely a tougher European opponent on top of citeh and Liverpool away.
7 games in 23 days
I’m all for a bit of rotation mate but Holding and Kiwior is just asking for big trouble.
Personally wouldn’t really feel comfortable with the Vieira/Nelson combo on the right side of our attack as together it’s just such a step down from Ode/Saka.
I suspect the spine will remain strong; Gabriel, Saliba, Jorginho, Xhaka, with the rotations happening in the wide areas.
TP with his recent injury could probably sit this one out.
I would use these Europa games as nothing more than to give our second string lads some quality competitive game time that won’t have a detrimental affect on our Premiership aspirations. It would also give them the opportunity to stake a claim for the first XI. The primary focus from now on in until May has got to be the title at all costs. No one will be more pleased than I if we make it through to the semis and/or the final. But risk losing the likes of an Odegaard or a Saka or a Saliba or a Ramsdale… Read more »
Excellent draw. But some big teams waiting for us in the next round.
Shall we see how this round pans out before even thinking about the next one?
And I thought that I was negative!!
Very good fats. 😂
i’m not being negative at all , I think (hope) we go through, but with football not being an exact science, i’m not counting my chicken, that’s all.
😀
Tricky draw, they got 4 points from Sp*rs in the CL group stages.
Any team could do so!
What I should have said is Lisbon got a win and a draw against the team 4th in the Premier League!
I know man but Spurs are terrible after all
But Tottenham get battered everywhere they go…
It feels like against most Portuguese club sides I’ve seen you have to play with intensity, take the attack to them and not let up until you’ve established a good lead
Quality wise they’re no match for the top EPL teams, so keep asking questions and they’ll run out of answers. But they are good at turning games into a tactical war of attrition and frustrate you if they’re allowed to dictate the tempo
Conte of course loves to leave the handbrake on for the first hour, which played right into their hands
Plus he was asking the wrong questions, like “what do we think of shit?”
If you ask them such easy questions they’ll never run out of answers
we got 6 in the league
spurs aren’t arsenal mate.
Banana peel; underrate them at your own peril.
I shall indeed underrate them at my own peril, just you watch!
It’s the Europa; it doesn’t matter.
disagree wholeheartedly. our European record is terrible for the teams we’ve had over the years. have a go at winning it, we’ve a good enough team to win both.
Not if we pick up injuries.
With the notable exceptions of Tommi, Tierney, Trossard, Jorginho, Vieira and ESR, the rest of the second string boys aren’t good enough to provide like-for-like replacements to the first team.
If Saka or Ramsdale or Gabriel or Saliba were to pick up a season-ender in the Europa, our Premiership challenge would become needlessly handicapped.
Could have been worse. We should actually be glad that United beat Barca…it means United now have more matches to play and that also means there was no chance of us facing Barca.
I would much rather face Barca than United to be fair.
Perhaps. But we couldn’t face United in this round. And they have to juggle the extra matches now, just as we will. And I’d rather face Sporting than Barca.
I was at Highbury the night we beat Sporting Lisbon. My recollection was a bullet header from Radford from the edge of the penalty area!
I played for Raddy when he managed Bishop’s Stortford in very late 80’s and early 90’s. What he didn’t know about the game wasn’t worth knowing. Great sense of humour too – very dry Yorkshire. As a player, he was second to none. His finishing and headers in particular are the stuff of legend, but it was his running off the ball that impresses me in the footage of his time at Arsenal. The FA Cup Final against Liverpool in 1971 is a prime example. Next time you watch him lay off the ball for Charlie George to strike the… Read more »