Arsenal to face Barca in Champions League
Holders Barcelona are relishing the prospect of locking horns with Arsenal, according to technical secretary Robert Fernandez.
The Gunners were pitted against Barca in Monday’s draw, with the first leg at the Emirates Stadium due to be played on February 23 and the return game at the Camp Nou on March 16.
The most recent meeting came in 2011, when Arsenal won the home leg 2-1 but ended up losing 4-3 in the last-16 clash.
Both PSG and Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea are defending their respective domestic league titles this season, though the Londoners are facing a tougher time of it at present.
The Gunners booked their place in the knockout stages of the Champions League after beating Olympiakos and they’ve been rewarded with a bumper tie against Spanish giants Barcelona.
Also, five-time champion Bayern Munich will play away first against 2015 runner-up Juventus, while record 10-time champion Real Madrid will face AS Roma. Whilst Real Madrid’s manager Rafa Benitez will look to add to his impressive Champions League pedigree. This could be their chance to make the desired impact in this competition they have been waiting for.
The most important one, obviously, involves Barcelona, who gets to face Arsenal in February of next year after the European Cup takes its usual two-month break.
Fernandez believes it will be an open tie but admits he is very happy to avoid last season’s runners-up Juventus and Ligue 1 champs PSG. We know the Chelsea players, and we know they will give everything to get to the knockout (stage). The Ukrainian club will play their home tie without a crowd as punishment for the racist behaviour of some fans during their draw with Chelsea in the group stage.
“We did not want to play Paris or Juve – but this is more straight-forward”.
“[Lionel] Messi, Neymar, [Luis] Suárez, you could go on, but we have our own world class players and I am sure they will be fantastic games in London and in Barcelona”.
Other than Arsenal, the other two English teams in the competition – Chelsea and Manchester City – were handed relatively easier draws.