Edu says Arsenal “have to dream” of Champions League success despite being handed a difficult route to the final at Wembley.
The Gunners will face Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals in April knowing either Manchester City, the reigning champions, or Real Madrid, the competition’s most successful club, await in the semi-finals.
Should Mikel Arteta’s side come through those tests, it’ll be one of Paris Saint-Germain, Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund or Atletico Madrid in the final. Easy.
In the short term, it’s all eyes on Bayern. As has been well-documented, it’s not been a vintage season for the Bavarians and head coach Thomas Tuchel has already announced he’ll leave his role in the summer.
Chasing a twelfth successive Bundesliga title, they are currently 10 points behind Granit Xhaka’s Bayer Leverkusen. They also exited the German Cup at the hands of third-tier opposition in November.
Despite his side’s struggles, Harry Kane has taken to life in Germany like a duck to water netting 36 goals in 34 games in all competitions. Given he’s scored 14 goals in 19 games against Arsenal, he’s probably licking his lips at a return to the Emirates.
“It’s a beautiful game to play,” Edu told Arsenal.com after the draw.
“We are going to be playing against a team that are very experienced in the competition and the players that they have are amazing, but we have good momentum. We are really excited to face them and see if we can go through.
“The way the players and the team are performing is very exciting. We are playing at our best at the moment, so let’s carry on playing the way we are playing and see how far we can go.”
Other pre-game storylines include Serge Gnabry’s return to Arsenal; the attacker is a former teammate of Arteta. The Spaniard will also face off against former charge Leroy Sane, with whom he struck up a close rapport during their days at Manch115ter City. Kai Havertz also goes up against many of his international colleagues.
😂😂 will be a good game for sure 💪🏼 #YaGunnersYa https://t.co/lYMwIOLL3c
— Kai Havertz (@kaihavertz29) March 15, 2024
Asked if Arsenal can win the whole competition, which would be a first in the club’s history, Edu continued: “Why not? We have to dream because of the way we are playing and performing and the momentum we have at the moment.
“This is the position we have to always be in because of the size of the club and the way we are, and it feels like we’re back where we belong.”
“he’s probably licking his lips at a return to the Emirates.”
He’s positively drooling.
That’s because of his overbite.
So crazy but I wanted to know if Arteta had played against Bayern as an Arsenal player.
And I found this. Which was posted on this very day 11 years ago….
Weird.
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1568228-ramsey-and-arteta-the-heroes-of-arsenals-victory-at-bayern-munich
Mouth-breathers often have dry lips, so yes, he’s licking them.
It’s often reported Lord Openmouth has problems showering as the perpetually open mouth puts him at risk of drowning.
Interesting that following the draw, we have moved up to second favourites in the Champions League with Bookies, with only City ahead of us.
My biggest concern with the PL and CL is the lack of time between games from the end of this month to the end of the season. Mad considering how spread out games have been for most of 2024! Hopefully with injured players coming back to the squad the team will cope.
I wonder if that makes sense though? If City are the favourites, then the second favourites would be a team from the other half of the draw right?
If you can work out who will progress from the other side of the draw, you’ll get a decent price on them (think PSG are 8/1), but whoever they are I think it’s hard to believe the side coming through our side won’t beat them, particularly given the final is at Wembley and 2 out of the 4 are English.
yes, but that bookies in UK, Not in German, Spain, Italy ….
Yeah, I think that just means that bookies can get bets on Arsenal without giving more favourable odds. My guess is the same thing happens in Germany if you want to bet on Bayern.
Good thing that most teams are positive and not park-the-bus like Porto, therefore I’m glad we avoided Atlético Madrid. We have a chance against any teams here. I’d love to measure ourselves against Real in the semi finals!
I think we can beat Bayern, but it will be even tougher that the Porto draw. We have a good defence and I think we can cope against any team, the key is whether we find our magics and take our chances in their box.
All 60,000 tickets are now allocated to Arsenal due to the Bayern fans being on a stadium ban. What an amazing atmosphere that is going to be for the fans and players. COYG!
Wow, that’s a wee side win for the club. Should be a good atmosphere, and a bit of extra gate receipts won’t hurt anyone.
Given its a wee bit of an unexpected boon, it would be nice if the club could offer the normal away allocation at cut price rates, maybe via charity partners, arsenal foundation or whatever. Get some local school kids in or something. That would be really special.
We can’t get tickets for love nor money in the ballots or the ticket exchange and you want to give them away to school kids? They’re not free tickets, away fans would’ve had to pay. Hopefully the extra tickets give more fans a chance to get to a game
Very important to build a 2 or 3 goal cushion in the first leg
Small margins at this level
Get a win, no matter the score, and be positive we can perform in Germany.
If we can’t withstand the pressure of the Allianz then it tells us where we are at the moment.
COYG
A two goal margin should be enough of an insurance policy when we rock up to the Allianz.
We’ve historically been poor against them but also in all honesty this isn’t a vintage Bayern squad. Definitely there for the taking and I am sure Mikel will have loaded the previous results as a pre game motivational talks.
Would be a huge statement to beat a team we’ve had some of our worst European nights. Additionally, Bayern will undoubtedly take the game to us and attack which should play right into our hands. Anycase, licking my lips to finally be fighting top teams and being in the conversation for the major prizes again
In pure quality overall I think we should win, but experience is a big thing.
That’s why BM are considered favourites.
We just have to use the Porto experience, tap into our growing mentality and step up again.
COYG!
Bayern also no longer have divey/dangerous Arjen Robben on their team. That definitely helps our chances!
Be excited!
I can see us beating Bayern Munich and going into the City/Madrid game as an underdog might work in our favour.
I too prefer to fight as an underdog.
I’d have hated to draw Atletico. Their stadium was a cauldron against Milan and they play like Porto on steroids.
Let’s have it gunners.
Our visit to City will tell us a lot about our chances in the UCL
Fair comment I think
Winning at the Erica’s is a big mental hurdle more than anything, so that tells us something about our ability to handle CL pressure against a big team who has had our number previously.
Etihad
Wenger: “(Arjen) Robben is very good at getting the maximum of nothing. He’s a great player as well a very good diver but it’s part of him.” Same true of Kane?