Arguably the world's two most attractive football teams face off with each other tonight in North London as Arsenal prepare to square up to La Liga leaders Barcelona.
Barca are rampant at the top of La Liga, only having their 16 match winning streak ended at the weekend while the Londoner's are well known for their slick brand of football, and with the two clubs standings outside of Europe this should prove to be the most watched tie of the round.
Who's Up For It?
Arsenal have been boosted by the return of Samir Nasri to their squad, the midfielder having spent two weeks out with the hamstring injury he suffered in the 2-1 FA Cup win over Huddersfield. Manager Arsene Wenger will make the decision as to whether the Frenchman will play today.
Tomas Rosicky will return to the squad but Abou Diaby will be missing with a calf injury that he picked up while on international duty with France.
Two Barcelona first team players didn't travel with the squad, namely Carles Puyol and Jeffren Suarez, but B teamer Thiago Alcantara is a member of the party, although he is unlikely to make it into Pep Guardiola's matchday squad.
How Are They Doing?
Both sides have won five of their last six matches, though two of those Arsenal wins came against lower division opponents in cup competitions. The Gunners put the disappointment of letting a four goal lead slip at Newcastle behind them with a 2-0 weekend win over Wolves. In terms of League only form Arsenal are yet to lose since the turn of the year, drawing twice in the aforementioned Newcastle game and a dour stalemate against title rivals Manchester City at the Emirates.
Prior to this weekend Barcelona had won 16 consecutive league matches but a 1-1 draw with lowly Sporting Gijon ended their spectacular run. Their previous five games have, however, yielded 17 goals while overall they have scored an incredible 97 times in just 37 matches in all competitions this season, conceding only 19 in the process. Their results this season have also included an 8-0 rout away at UD Alemria and a thumping 5-0 'El Classico' win over Real Madrid in the following game at the Nou Camp.
How About In The Champions League?
Arsenal had a wobble in their group stage campaign, losing to both Shakhtar Donetsk and Braga before a 3-1 victory over Partizan Belgrade, the same scoreline as it finished in the first game between the two, confirmed their progression. The Gunners did win all of their home games, though, and will be confident at the Emirates.
Their opponents went through the first phase unbeaten with two big wins over Panathinaikos (5-1 at home and 3-0 away). They won their other two home games by two goals to nil but drew twice on the road in Copenhagen and Kazan, both games finishing 1-1.
Who Are The Match Winners?
Undoubtedly the biggest name on either team sheet will be that of 2010's Ballon d'Or winner Lionel Messi. Since a quiet world cup in the summer the Argentine forward has once again been on fire for his club. Last season Messi scored 45 goals in 52 games but this season he looks as though he will tear that record apart having already but away 37 goals in 32 appearances, an absolutely staggering record, and Arsenal fans won't appreciate his 19 assists up to this point in the season.
Arsenal's top scorer Samir Nasri has 14 goals this season, a paltry return compared to Messi's, but will face a race to get fit in time for this first leg of the tie. Not far behind him on 12 goals is Dutch international Robin Van Persie who is currently in superb form. The former Feyenoord striker played three games in August but suffered an ankle injury against Blackburn which ruled him out until November when he made two substitute appearances and finally a start right at the end of the month. Two games later he made his Champions League bow, scoring against Partizan Belgrade and has since scored a further 11 in just over two months.
Have We Met Before?
Tonight the English side will be hoping to break their duck against the Spanish champions, having failed to win in five previous meetings between the two sides.
Most recently the clubs met in the Champions League quarter-finals last term. Two Zlatan Ibrahimovic goals put the Catalans two up at the Emirates Stadium in the first leg before Theo Walcott came off of the bench to pull a goal back for the Gunners and after Carles Puyol was sent off Cesc Fabregas equalised from the penalty spot with five minutes remaining. The second leg started off well for Arsenal, Nicklas Bendtner giving the overall lead in the tie, but that was short lived as Lionel Messi scored just three minutes later and from then on the youngster never looked back, going on to score a total of four goals in the game including an ingenious chip over Manuel Almunia.
The highest profile meeting between the two sides came in the 2006 Champions League final at the Stade de France where Arsenal began by having Jens Lehmann controversialy sent off, the first man to be so in a Champions League final, but it was the Gunners who went in with a half time lead thanks to a Sol Campbell header. The introduction of Henrick Larsson, however, turned the game on it's head as the Swede set up both Samuel Eto,o and Juliano Belletti to give Barca the title.
The first head-to-head between Arsenal and Barca occured in 1999 when Kanu scored a late Arsenal equaliser at the Nou Camp. The return tie in the Champions League group B match up finished 4-2 to Barcelona at Highbury.
Who Said What?
Arsene Wenger believes his side have a strong chance of beating the Catalan's tonight and taking a lead into the second leg, he said:
"We have made our way forward by challenging in the Premier League, we are in all competitions and if you look at the predictions in pre-season, nobody in England predicted we would be today where we are.
"We have made our own way with our own strength and mental belief and there’s a good opportunity tomorrow to show we can be stronger than the predictions, and who doesn’t like that in football?"
He was then asked whether last seasons experience of playing Barcelona has improved his side, to which he responded:
"Certainly, yes, because we came out of the second game with a lot of frustrations because we missed the turning point of the game when we were 1-0 up over there," he went on.
"We are a stronger team now because this team has attitude, focus and every day since I am manager for a long time, I have not seen many teams with such consistent focus every day to improve. The main reason we have improved is because of the attitude of the players."
Pep Guardiola, manager of Barcelona, appreciates the way Arsenal like to play the game, very much as his own side do, telling the press:
"I like watching Arsenal, but I’d rather not be playing against them. We are two teams who want the ball and we both suffer without it. We want possession for as long as possible in order to make as many attacking situations as we can."
"This is going to be a tough game and our ties at this stage in the last two seasons [against Lyon and Stuttgart] were our worst performances in the competition. We have to charge ourselves up for this to be the quickest to get into the swing of things. I hope that the atmosphere and the quality of our opponents will help us to do that."
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