Martin Keown believes we’re in for a tough test against Bayer Leverkusen in our Champions League Round of 16 tie, but expects the home advantage in the second leg to be key.
We won all eight of our league phase matches in this season’s competition, meaning we’ll play at home in the second leg of all of our knockout ties, starting with our clash with the 2024 Bundesliga winners.
“Arsenal are becoming quite formidable now in Europe, one of the big heavyweights,” Martin said after the draw, “they were out of the competition for six years or so, three years back in now.
“Quarter-final, semi-final (the last two seasons), hopefully this year you can go that one step further. But you can’t look beyond Bayer Leverkusen in the next round, you see Inter Milan go out in the manner that they did (to Bodo/Glimt).
“Arsenal will be confident, they’re in really good form right now, but they won’t be complacent.”
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Our opponents finished 16th in the league phase, with the highlight of the first half of their European season being a 2-0 win away to Manchester City in November.
In February’s playoff round, Leverkusen beat Greek side Olympiacos 2-0 on aggregate to secure their place in the Round of 16.
Martin expects the German side to provide a strong test as we look to reach the quarter-finals for the third year running.
“I think it will be a tough game, we’ve seen them do very well against other English teams in the Champions League, some good wins away from home.
“They won’t be taken lightly. Arsenal will really go after them, and I think this year (having) the second leg at home, I think that's really strong from Arsenal’s point of view.
“Not looking beyond Bayer Leverkusen, but to play them second, the second game at home, I think it’s a strong advantage.”
As well as learning our Round of 16 opponents, Friday’s draw also mapped out our potential route to this season’s final in Budapest.
If we were to beat Leverkusen, we’d then face either Bodo/Glimt or Sporting CP in the quarter-finals, before taking on one of Newcastle United, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid or Tottenham in the last four.
While Martin feels we have the quality to go on such a run, he feels our focus should be on getting past Bayer Leverkusen first.
“Of course you want to go to the final, nobody’s frightened of that. But you’ve got to take one step at a time, be beyond professional.
“You can dream, and you can say that the draw looks kind, but when you see some of the teams in there, Bodo/Glimt, who knocked out Inter Milan, former winners of the competition, you’ve got Barcelona, it’s difficult wherever you look.
“So just concentrate on what you need to do, that’s the next game (against) Bayer Leverkusen, and we go from there."
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