Key events
Asked yesterday whether either Bukayo Saka or Jurrien Timber might play tonight, Mikel Arteta said: “Maybe one of them, let’s see.” Well we have seen, and the answer is neither of them, and also no Martin Odegaard or Riccardo Calafiori. But Declan Rice, who missed training yesterday, is in.
The teams!
Team sheets have been handed in, and tonight’s lineups are as follows:
Arsenal: Raya; Mosquera, Saliba, Gabriel, Hincapie; Zubimendi, Rice; Madueke, Eze, Martinelli; Gyokere. Subs: Arrizabalaga, Setford, White, Jesus, Norgaard, Trossard, Havertz, Dudziak, Lewis-Skelly, Dowman, Salmon.
Sporting: Rui Silva; Eduardo Quaresma, Diomande, Goncalo Inacio, Araujo; Hjulmand, Morita; Catamo, Francisco Trincao, Pedro Goncalves; Suarez. Subs: Joao Virginia, Debast, Geovany Quenda, Vagiannidis, Kochorashvili, Faye, Daniel Braganca, Joao Simoes, Flavio Goncalves, Salvador Blopa, Rafael Nel, Ricardo Mangas.
Referee: François Letexier (France).
Preamble
Hello world! This is Arsenal’s 12th Champions League game of the season, and they’ve won 10 and drawn one of the previous 11. Europe is their happy place, and this the only competition in which they’ve played and not lost over the last month, in which time they’ve been dumped out of the FA Cup by Southampton, lost a League Cup final to Manchester City, been turned over at home by Bournemouth and generally allowed the wheels to come very much and emphatically off. Tonight, nursing a 1-0 lead from the first leg, they can and indeed need to give themselves a much-needed morale boost ahead of Sunday’s Premier League enormoclash at the Etihad.
A few happy omens for Arsenal:
The record of English clubs in two-legged Champions League ties against Portuguese opponents is jolly good – 10 wins on the spin since Benfica upset Liverpool in 2005-06.
The record of English clubs in Champions League or European Cup quarter-finals against Portuguese opponents is even better: played nine, won nine.
Sporting haven’t won a competitive match in England in 10 attempts since they beat Middlesbrough 3-2 in the 2004-05 Uefa Cup.
Less happy for Arsenal:
Here’s Ed Aarons’ match preview:
There was a dramatic pause when Mikel Arteta was asked what he wants from the Arsenal supporters against Sporting on Wednesday evening in the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final.
After his attempts to rouse them before the early kick-off against Bournemouth at the weekend by telling them to “bring your lunch” backfired spectacularly with a costly home defeat that ended with some fans booing the Premier League leaders off the pitch, this time the message was more considered.
“No fear. Pure fire,” said the Arsenal manager. “That’s what I want to see from the players, from the people, from myself. That’s it. Go for it because the opportunity is unbelievable. We are in April, we have an incredible opportunity ahead of us. Let’s go for it.”
