Morning folks.
Today could feel like a very long day. Arsenal are in Champions League semi-final second leg action against PSG later on, with the game finely poised after last week. We’re 1-0 down from the first game, but anything can happen in football. If you watched last night’s other semi-final, you had a perfect demonstration of exactly that as Inter edged out Barcelona in what was a remarkable game.
For some reason, I can’t really envisage tonight being that kind of encounter. I’m not sure my heart would cope if it was, but it did show you that if it’s tight, you just have to keep going until the very end because it really does only take a split second to score a goal … or let one in.
In terms of tonight’s team, there was a boost as Jurrien Timber returned to the squad after missing out against Bournemouth, and there’s a bit more depth with the return of Riccardo Calafiori too. I can’t see the Italian starting, but maybe as an option late on he can give us something. He’s scored a few goals this season too, so while not a typical attacking option, it’s something a little different/extra if we need it.
So, with Thomas Partey returning from suspension, I think we’ll see a starting XI of: Raya, Timber, Saliba, Kiwior, Lewis-Skelly, Partey, Rice, Odegaard, Martinelli, Saka, Merino.
It’s not massively different from the one that played the first leg, but that increased physicality down the spine might give PSG something else to think about. Merino up front can occupy their central defenders in a different way from Leandro Trossard, and perhaps we’ll be able to exert more control in midfield with the manager’s preferred starting trio.
Key for me this evening is getting into this game from the start. We don’t have to go gung-ho, there’s a scenario where we only have to score once to go through, but we have to make sure we don’t find ourselves chasing shadows the way we did in the first 30 minutes of last week’s game. It will be noisy in Paris, and they’re obviously a fantastic side full of confidence, but anything we can do chip away at that in the early stages would be very useful.
I’d love an early goal, but make sure we don’t give anything away. 0-0 at half-time would be fine with me, once this isn’t a night where we’re clinging on by our fingernails to that scoreline. I think their goal last week rattled us because of how quickly they scored, but once we dealt with that – even if it took longer than any of us would have liked – it was a pretty even game. And, let’s not forget, there was a period either side of half-time when we were on top.
That’s something the manager has to instill in his players: the belief that we can go there, score goals, and win. It’s something Declan Rice referenced before the game, saying:
I think we’ve showed we can do it. When we went to the Bernabeu the other week, there was a lot of questions on whether we could rise to that occasion. We really need to be positive. You can’t come into a semi-final away at Paris and not have that belief and courage that you’re going to come here and win the game. We’re ready and we’re looking forward to it.
The first leg felt like a missed opportunity but we had good chances to score through Gabriel Martinelli and Trossard, and had a goal disallowed for a pretty tight offside. Yes, there were things we didn’t do as well as we should have, particularly in the closing stages of the game, but another night this game is on a knife-edge tonight with no margin for either side.
We didn’t face the best ever version of Real Madrid in the quarter-final, but all anyone could talk about was their aura and history in this competition, and we didn’t just beat them once, we beat them twice. I’m sure those games will be part of how the manager gets his team up for this – above and beyond the prize that lies ahead, a place in the Champions League final and an opportunity to do something this club has never done before. I don’t worry at all about motivation, and I think we have enough quality to get a result, but so much of this comes down to how we manage the occasion.
Arteta laid it out in his press conference:
We are a win away from being the Champions League final, in one of the most beautiful cities in the world against a great opponent – it doesn’t get much better than that. We are here to make history, and we have a big opportunity tomorrow.
The Champions League is something of a Holy Grail for both these clubs. Arsenal, with a long history really ought to have won this competition at some stage, but we didn’t make the most of our chances down the years. PSG, owned by a nation state whose influence on the game has been questionable has, for years, felt like a vanity project with Champions League success as its ultimate sports-washing goal. They’ve come close but never got it over the line, but perhaps this is the best ‘team’ they’ve put together in that time, rather than a collection of high profile individuals who leech focus from the collective.
I can’t tell anyone what will happen, and everyone reading this will be of one mind as to how we want the result to go. Whatever transpires, I just hope we go out there and do ourselves justice this evening. This team is capable of far better than we’ve seen from them in recent times, which is a frustration on a week to week basis, but if the consequence of that is an historic, quality performance tonight to see us through to the final, that will pale into relative insignificance.
‘Make it happen’ was the banner, the call-to-arms, however you want to describe it. Chances like this don’t come along very often, so let’s hope the boys are up for it and can rise to the occasion. The last time we won a European trophy we beat PSG in the semi-final. What I wouldn’t give for a little bit of history repeating … 🎵
COME ON YOU REDS!
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