The winner of the tie between Bayern Munich and PSG will face either Arsenal or Atlético Madrid in the final. Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta lavished praise on the spectacular first leg in Paris, but he also noted that both Bayern and PSG avoid the intense pressures faced by English clubs.
"When I look at the number of minutes played and the freshness of these players, it doesn't surprise me," Arteta said. "The difference between the leagues and the way the game is played there is like night and day. We're comparing two completely different worlds here."
England's schedule does include an extra competition, the League Cup, and the Premier League has two more clubs than the Bundesliga or Ligue 1, meaning Arsenal have played seven additional matches this season compared to Bayern or PSG. Yet, when measured against Bayern, the gap in workload is not as vast as Arteta suggests.
While five Gunners have clocked more minutes than Munich's ever-present Diaz, the numbers converge quickly after that. Take Stanisic, Bayern's tenth-most used player (2,861 minutes); he has played noticeably more than Arsenal's tenth man, Leandro Trossard (2,577). Diaz, Kane and Olise have all logged more minutes than Viktor Gyökeres, Arsenal's most-used forward.