The Champions League continues this week with the only remaining British team yet to play their quarter final leg. Arsenal will host Bayern Munich on Tuesday, February 19th at the Emirates Stadium in a thrilling encounter.
Arsenal fans pain of failure to win a trophy looks set to continue for another year after a shock FA cup defeat to Blackburn this weekend seeing them knocked out of a domestic cup by lower league opposition for the second time this season. This leaves the only hope of gaining silverware would be for Arsene Wenger’s side to win the biggest one of them all – the Champions league. A trophy would mean everything to the Gunners who are yet to win Europe’s elite competition despite coming so close in 2006. Wenger will still be keen to keep focus on the league as his team are sitting in 5th place and are chasing arch rivals Tottenham to clinch 4th spot and return to the competition next year. That said, with the pressure and abuse directed towards the Arsenal manager following Saturdays result, it would seem the best way to respond would be getting a result on Tuesday night.
However, the odds aren’t on the London clubs side. Bayern have been in immense form this season and have all but wrapped up the Bundesliga title, leading the way by a huge 15 point deficit over fellow rivals Borussia Dortmund. This allows Bayern some ease to take one eye off the league and go all out at the Emirates in attempt to seek an away goal and salvage some sort of advantage going into the second leg at the Allianz Arena.
Whilst Tuesday night may not necessarily be a make-or-break game as it is for Arsenal, the Bayern players will be sensing a sort of revenge mission – following their misery of last year’s conclusion to the competition. Bayern came so close to lifting the trophy last year but were denied by another London based side Chelsea on penalties in their own back yard, despite having the majority of the play. With the current squad almost identical to the team who featured that night in Munich the players will be facing English and London opposition for the first time since and will be determined to prevent the same outcome.
