Arsenal vs Barcelona is probably the UEFA Champions League tie that has been discussed the most today. Barca are a nightmare draw for anybody, but when you combine their insanely great and exciting attack against the Gunners banged up back line- ouch.
Arsenal’s defense won’t get much help from their midfield either given all the injuries they’ve suffered at that position too.
Barcelona is the Evil Empire’s DeathStar of the European Cup- just incredibly imposing. Don’t tell that to Arsenal club secretary David Miles though. He couldn’t be any more happy with how things turned out today.
“We were hoping for a good draw today and I think it’s probably the tie of the round,” Miles told reporters at the draw.
“It’s not going to be easy and it’s probably the one team that most Arsenal fans wanted to avoid at this stage. But the draw has given us Barcelona and it’s up to us to make a good fist of it.”
“We’ve got our own world class players and we’ll go in for this. There will be two fantastic games in London and Barcelona and we’re very much looking forward to it. They’ve beaten us twice in the last five or six years so it’s about time we turned the table on them.”
“We’re in a rich vein of form at the moment, we’re sitting top of the Premier League and come February and March we’ll have some of our top players back from injury hopefully, so it’ll be great to take them on with our full strength side if we could.”
Miles added: “We’re delighted to be here. This is the 16th consecutive season that we’ve reached the last 16 of the Champions League so that in itself is a testament to Arsene Wenger and his players over the years.”
That’s good form by Miles though- conveying confidence in this manner. Good luck with that.
Of all the knockout round pairings, Juventus vs Bayern Munich might be the most appealing on paper. That’s the true tie of the round. You’ll get to see the German powerhouse take on last year’s UCL runner-up.
Here’s the full list of ties to be played between Feb. 16, 17; 23, 24; and March 8, 9; 15, 16:
Gent v Wolfsburg
Roma v Real Madrid
PSG v Chelsea
Arsenal v Barcelona
Juventus v Bayern Munich
PSV Eindhoven v Atletico Madrid
Benfica v Zenit
Dynamo Kiev v Manchester City
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and sometimes writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. The website is also featured on News Now.
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