Arsenal have been dealt a crushing blow ahead of Wednesday night’s Champions League semi-final second leg against Paris St-Germain following an update on the fitness of the French side’s main goalscoring threat Ousmane Dembele.
The Gunners head to the French capital trailing 1-0 from the first leg as they look to secure a place in the final of the competition for only the second time in the history, having previously lost to Barcelona in 2006 – ironically in Paris.
While Arsenal have been boosted by Martin Odegaard and Jurrien Timber both being present in training ahead of the clash, along with Riccardo Calafiori’s return, the news coming out of PSG is nowhere near as positive for the north London outfit.
Dembele was considered a major doubt with a hamstring injury after coming off midway through the second half of last week’s first leg at Emirates Stadium.
The 27-year-old, who scored the only goal in north London, missed PSG’s weekend Ligue 1 defeat against Strasbourg but resumed training on Monday and will be fit for Wednesday’s contest.
“He’s been training with us for the last two days,” said manager Luis Enrique.
“You saw him on Tuesday – a normal training session for him. He’ll be available on Wednesday.”
The France international, who moved to PSG from Barcelona in 2023, is the club’s top scorer this season with 33 goals in all competitions and his availability will come as a crushing blow to Arsenal as they look to book a date in Munich on May 31.
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Gary Neville, meanwhile, believes Arsenal can still turn round their semi-final deficit against PSG and progress to the final – as the French side get “very nervous” for these type of matches.
Speaking ahead of the game, the Sky Sports pundit said: “Arsenal have got a chance on Wednesday. It’s a completely different game obviously, it goes without saying. But you can go there and cause some shocks.
“I’ve been there a couple of times and seen Real Madrid win there and I saw Manchester United win there. PSG get very nervous if the wrong things happen for them in that stadium.
“If Arsenal can just hang in there, stay in the game and score a goal – then before you know it, all of a sudden that stadium doesn’t become an asset for PSG, it becomes a problem for them. Because there’s such an expectation on them to get into Champions League finals and win it.
“It’s going to be difficult. It was a great performance by PSG at the Emirates, and it wasn’t a great performance by Arsenal the other night. But Arsenal will be better.
“If they can stay into that game in the final 15 to 20 minutes, then they have a chance.
“I think the worry for Arsenal on Saturday was that they played their strongest side and still lost. But they’ve got a big game midweek and I genuinely think Arsenal can do it.
“In that stadium, there’s such an expectation about PSG and them winning the Champions League and they build themselves up. It’ll be a hostile atmosphere for the first 10-20 minutes and if PSG score, it’ll continue to be hostile because they’ll be right at it.
“However, if you can get a goal – which I think Arsenal definitely can whether it be from a set-piece, a counter-attack, or a bit of brilliance, whatever it might be – I think you can see and feel it change in that stadium.
“I do think they’ll finish the job and finish second in the league. It’s a very big game for Arsenal and it is a season-defining game. It could be career-defining.
“Those types of games – coming back from 1-0 behind away from home against PSG – is something that ultimately, with what they did in the quarter-final against Real Madrid, will be an absolutely incredible achievement.”
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