The ‘best’ team in the World, Barcelona, take on the brilliance of Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium in London. On display will be some of the planet’s best players in Villa, Xavi, Iniesta, Pique, Bojan, Mascherano, Alves, Valdes, Van Persie, Fabregas, Arshavin, Nasri, Walcott and, of course, the very best in the magnificent Argentinean Lionel Messi.
Barcelona, given their European pedigree, particularly over the past three seasons, will go into this encounter as strong favorites the make the next stage. Their La Liga form has been outstanding as they have pulled away from big spending Real Madrid at the top of the table. David Villa, after a slightly slow start by his high standards, as started to find the net as regularly as he did for Valencia. Add to that the masterful passing of Xavi and Iniesta and the vision, skill and finishing of Messi and you can see why Barcelona top the ‘goals scored’ table by some margin on 71 from 23 games (that’s over 3 a goals a game!). The recent draw against Sporting Gijon would appear to be only a minor blip in the quest for La Liga and Champions League glory.
Arsenal, however, will be no push-overs and their form this season has also been impressive. They are second to the great Manchester United in the Premier League table and have comprehensively beaten the mighty Chelsea amongst others already this season. They are in the Carling Cup Final and FA Cup, meaning an unheard of Quadruple is still a possibility. The return from injury of the brilliant Dutchman Robin Van Persie has been a welcome boost to the ‘ Gunners’, scoring an amazing 10 goals in 7 games. If Van Persie and Fabregas hit top form the Gunners will be a hard side to beat on their home turf.
Tomas Rosicky and Sami Nasri are back in the Arsenal squad after injury, but Abou Diaby is unavailable due to a calf problem. Barcelona, who is should be noted knocked Arsenal out of the Champions League last season, appear to have a most of their players available for selection with the one notable absence being Carlos Puyol.
This game has all the ingredients of a Champions League cracker, and, despite Arsene Wenger talking about Arsenal as ‘massive underdogs’, is sure to be a competitive and hard fought match. I personally fancy Arsenal to nick a one goal lead from tonight’s first leg, but overall believe the skill, fitness, quality and flair of Barcelona will see them prevail over the two legs.
Camisetas SERIE A Todas las noticias, clasificaciones y resultados de las mejores ligas de fútbol en la sección de deportes de El Diario Vasco.