Champions League Night, at Home. Beautiful.
We are playing Real Madrid at home in about 30 min in Champions League quarter finals. This is THE biggest game of the season, considering PL trophy is out of sight. Madrid is probably the toughest opponent you can get in Champions League over two legs. They will be 3-0 down on aggregate with 10 minutes on clock, and go on to win 4-3. With the likes of Mbappe, Rodrygo and Vinicious up front, and a midfield of Modric, Camavinga and Bellingham, they are one of the best attacking sides in the world and they have got a very good defence as well.
We, on the other hand, are going into the game with Merino as a CF. Jakub Kiwior in defence is another problem for me, as Gabriel M has picked up an injury and will be out for the rest of the season. We have a 17 year old at LB and a new CB partnership. That’s a bit concerning but you know, going into a game as under-dogs has it’s own benefits. The good thing is, Madrid will play an attacking game and we have been relatively good against the likes of Liverpool and City who tries to play their way. It’s the low blocks we suffer against.
And we are at home, so the crowd will be behind us. Boys have dreamt of this, to play against the best teams in the world, at the grandest stage, and I’m sure they are going to prove today that they deserve to be here. I don’t care about the second leg, we win today with 2 goal margin and we can play with 6 defenders in the away game.
Talking about the strategy Mikel would have put up …. well I don’t care. Lets go, play our game with freedom, give our 100% and see where it ends.
A very short one today, but I will be alive during the game today.
#COYG
Prediction time – I will go with 3-1 to Arsenal.
Now, here’s a fact. Arsenal have never lost a game when Saliba + Kiwior has played together as CBs. 4 clean sheets in 7 starts.
They will not let us down again today.
confirmed lineup:
Raya, Timber Saliba, Kiwior, Skelly, Partey, Rice, Ode, Marts, Saka, Merino
good to see Marts starting, as he will keep them more honest on the wings than Tross…still wouldn’t start Merino, but his familiarity with Real might aid us at some point…personally I would started Ethan at home, but considering that MA never allowed him to find his footing anywhere except out wide right, so I’m not surprised he’s on the bench
Ambarish—I dare you to list who those victories(clean sheets) were against
of course I’m only joking Ambarish…I don’t have anything against Kiwior, I just haven’t seen enough of him to form a proper opinion…he seems to have all sorts of fans in Serie A, as there’s been no less than 5 top-half clubs who’ve expressed interest
TRVL
It’s only Mbappe. Lets trust the Kiwior 🙂
Would prefer KT instead of Kiwior and Ethan instead of Merino.
We are in AKB land and that worries me a lot…
He is a weak link in that defence, I am just consoling myself. We are poor in 3 places compared to Madrid : Mbappe vs Merino, Kiwior vs Rudiger, Bellingham vs Odegaard.
here’s some positives:
(1) they’re far more of a left-side attacking squad, which is where our best defensive players play
(2) their best defender this season is Acensio and he plays on the opposite side of Saka
(3) Mendy is out
“It’s only Mbappe.”
Famous last words there!
Ode might want to put on a good performance to show them what they’re missing…not to mention, the Bellingham of last year hasn’t been on display nearly as much this season
let’s face it, on paper they’re clearly the superior side, but that doesn’t always matter come matchday
they’re such an unlikeable side that even they can’t stand one another
Ambarish
VAR today will be our friend 🙄
Our bench is very poor bar Ethan and White
Traditionally in the last 8 form and stats mean little
Ambarish—did you already jinx Kiwior?
Saka was very poor there, Saliba to the rescue.
shit set piece by Ode then bad play by Saka…thank goodness Junior is such a selfish prick, as he should have played that one to Mbappe much earlier
TRVL he is naturally bad, don’t need a jinx at all.
That was some ball from Saka, should have gone in…