Who else remembers last year’s match between Arsenal and Olympiacos? We lost 2-2 on aggregate, Auba missed a sitter in the extra time and Olympiacos scored a 119-minute goal to show us the door in Round of 32 in Europa League.
Couldn’t have been worse.
The stage is set for a (kind of) rematch, only this time we are playing in Round of 16 and it’s a must win game of Leg1 of the 2. Chances to qualify for Champions League football is over through Premier League and Europa is the only way left.
We can’t leave it to the Leg 2, though we have developed this habit of leaving things for the very end. I’m expecting our strikers to convert the chances we have been missing recently. I’m also expecting we do not make mistakes like the one Xhaka did against Burnley and I will pray VAR is fair and sees the handball clearly!
Europa have some in-forms team in Round of 16 – one of the Man United and Milan, Roma, Ajax, Tottenham and Villareal. Facing Olympiacos is sort of better than facing an in-form Man United or Tottenham early in Round 16.
It’s not gonna be easy though. Matches are coming thick and fast, we are playing today and again on Sunday against Spurs. We then host Olympiacos next Thursday and play away to West Ham in Premier League. It’s gonna be tiring to players, Mikel has to rotate and prioritize Europa over Premier League (except against Spurs).
We beat Leicester with a good number of regulars on the bench, which proved we have some depth. We can rotate without really hampering our Europa chances.
Lets get a 5 goal lead today and relax in the second leg 😉 We certainly need to stop relaxing and put the matches to bed when we have the chances.
What’s your prediction and what team you expect Mikel to play today? Let us know in the comments.
#COYG
