After Saturday’s wonderful and vital win over Everton in the Premier League, Arsenal return to UEFA Champions League action at home, aiming to set up a quarter-final clash with either Sporting CP or Bodo/Glimt.
Similarities to the Porto tie a few years ago?
The question has been put around whether this tie might have some similarities to the last 16 tie against Porto in 23/24, Arsenal were playing some of their best ever football under Mikel Arteta, and were comfortably expected to beat the 2004 winners, yet a 90th minute Galeno goal put the seal on a shocking performance, and saw the Gunners have to go back to London with a 1-0 deficit.
Arsenal were brilliant in the second leg a week later, with Leandro Trossard finishing a wonderful through ball from Martin Odegaard. Despite going all the way to penalties, the hosts prevailed thanks to two saves from David Raya.
There’s a similarity with this Leverkusen tie; many people expected it to be no issue at all for Arsenal, yet they were very poor in Germany last week, but this time managed to come out with a draw rather than a defeat. That should mean if they can get an early lead on Tuesday night, Leverkusen would leave spaces behind which Arsenal can pick off, and take the game away from the visitors completely.
One of the big disappointments for Arsenal during the first leg was the tempo at which they moved the ball. Leverkusen didn’t really have to get out of their low block because the ball was being moved in a triangle between Martin Zubimendi, Gabriel, and William Saliba.
Saturday’s win over Everton showed a bigger improvement on this side as Arsenal played with the ball at a much quicker pace, and eventually forced the crucial goal in the 90th minute.
Having missed the first leg and the Everton win, Leandro Trossard returned to first-team training on Monday.
Jurrien Timber was missing from training, having been substituted in the first half of the game at the weekend, meaning Cristian Mosquera or Ben White should come in to start at right-back.
Martin Odegaard is also unlikely to be available for the second leg, but Arteta said in his press conference on Monday that both him and Timber had a good chance to be available for Sunday’s Carabao Cup Final against Manchester City.