Mikel Arteta said he’s excited about what’s to come after we found out our Champions League round of 16 opponent.
Having topped the league phase of the competition, we will now face German side Bayer Leverkusen after they knocked out Olympiacos in the knockout play-off round.
While still fighting on all four fronts as we reach the final months of the campaign, Mikel reacted to being drawn against the 2024 Bundesliga champs.
He said: “Well, we are very excited to play the next round. We have earned the right to be in a strong position, what we’ve done in the group stage and that’s it. Now we need to start to analyse them and find ways to be better than them to try and go through the tie.”
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Bayer Leverkusen drawn in Champions League last 16](https://www.arsenal.com/news/bayer-leverkusen-drawn-champions-league-last-16?utm_source=arsenaldotcom&utm_medium=embedded-article&utm_campaign=news)
We’ll first head to the BayArena before the second leg coming at Emirates Stadium. While the prospect of continuing to fight for all trophies available to us, Mikel is staying grounded.
He said: “We are really excited. Fighting on four fronts and the way the team is consistently performing gives us a lot of hope and positive thoughts about what is coming. But we can only focus on the present. That's where we're going to put our energy and that's on Sunday.
“I focus a lot on what we have to do to continue in the manner and the trajectory that we are as a team, and from there, obviously try to improve.”
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