(Football news) Arsenal defeated Porto on penalties to extinguish memories of their last season’s knockout round. Meanwhile, Thomas Tuchel’s team, who will be without any supporters in North London due to an incident involving fireworks, advanced thus far thanks to a second-leg comeback victory over Lazio.
Since their most recent run to the round of eight in Europe’s premier competition in 2009–10, when the Arsene Wenger-led crop overcame a first-leg deficit against Porto with a commanding 5-0 Emirates victory, Arsenal’s last-16 woes had dogged the North London giants.
Fourteen years later, the manner of Arsenal’s fightback against the Portuguese powerhouses was not so emphatic, but thanks to a pair of David Raya saves from the spot while Mikel Arteta’s outfielders remained perfect from 12 yards, the Gunners emulated their 09-10 selves and finally banished their last-16 hoodoo.
The beaten 2006 finalists now have more European demons to banish on Tuesday night – not least their recent series of humiliating Bayern batterings – as two of their last three quarter-final appearances in the Champions League have ended in elimination, the outlier being victory over Villarreal in 2008-09.
However, the Emirates vibe is arguably at its zenith since Arsenal left their Highbury home, as a stellar 3-0 Premier League win over Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday – their 10th win from 11 top-flight games and fourth clean sheet in a row in all tournaments – took them back to the top of the table amid the engrossing three-way fight for glory.
While equalling a club record of keeping five consecutive away clean sheets in the Premier League, Arsenal now return to their feared home on the back of six straight wins at the Emirates in all competitions, and they have won all four of their Champions League clashes on familiar territory this season without shipping a single goal.
Of course, Bayern possess a feared marksman with all the know-how of scoring at the Emirates Stadium in Harry Kane, who after years of Tottenham Hotspur torment finally ended his North London association in a bid to rid the silverware monkey off his back.
The England captain and another erstwhile Arsenal academy product in Serge Gnabry put Bayern 2-0 up in the weekend’s Bundesliga showdown with Heidenheim, but owing to a catastrophic second-half collapse, the faltering champions all but conceded the crown to Bayer Leverkusen in an excruciating 3-2 loss.
Sixteen points adrift of Xabi Alonso’s unbeaten men with six games remaining, Bayern will lose their loose grip on the German top-flight title should Leverkusen win just one of their last sextet of matches, so barring a footballing miracle, the Champions League will be Tuchel’s only saving grace before he calls time on his ill-fated spell this summer.
Similar to their forthcoming hosts, Bayern also had to earn their spot in the quarterfinals for the fifth season in a row by overcoming a 1-0 loss to Lazio in the first leg and a 3-0 victory in the second. However, European demons have also recently plagued Tuesday’s visitors, as they have been eliminated at this stage three times in a row.
Even though Bayern has only kept one clean sheet in their last 12 games across all competitions, Gooners have every right to feel that revenge is on the horizon given the respective domestic careers of the two heavyweights. Bayern will also be less confident before they face Arsenal again, whom they have thrashed 5-1 in each of their previous three meetings.
