The dates for Arsenal’s Champions League double-header with Bayer Leverkusen have been confirmed, and there’s a knock-on change to our Premier League clash with Everton.
The Gunners will head to the BayArena on Wednesday 11th March for a 5.45pm kick-off (UK time), with the second leg at the Emirates on Tuesday 17th March at 8pm.
Everton’s visit to N5, previously moved from Saturday 14th to Sunday 15th after being selected for broadcast by Sky Sports, will now revert to Saturday. It’ll fill the 5.30pm slot.
On the Champions League test posed by Leverkusen, who Arsenal last played competitively in 2002, manager Mikel Arteta said: “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.”
Today’s draw at UEFA headquarters also revealed Arsenal’s potential path to the final in Budapest. If the Gunners beat Leverkusen, they will face Sporting Lisbon or Bodo/Glimt in the quarter-finals. Get through that, and it’ll be one of Newcastle, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid or Sp*rs in the semis.
“We are really excited,” added Arteta. “Going 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.”